! 

L  IB  R  J^  R  Y 

^  Th 

eological     Seminary, 

PRINCETON,     N.    J. 

Cas< 

BS    540    .G62    1877 

Shi'/ 

1 

God's  word,    man's    light   and 

Boot 

guide 

God's  Y7ord 

MAN'S    LIGHT    AND    GUIDE. 

A  COURSE  OF 

Lectures  on  the  Bible, 

BEFORE    THE 

New  York  Sunday  School  Association, 


BY 


REV.DRS.  TA  YLOR,  BRIGGS,  STORRS,  CROSBY,  BOOTH,  \ 

PORTER,  BOARDMAN,  WASHBURN,  AND  \ 

SIMPSON.  ■ 


AMERICAN  TRACT  SOCIETY, 

ISO  NASSAU  STREET,   NEW  YORK. 


COPYRIGHT,  1877, 
BY  AMERICAN  TRACT  SOCIETY. 


PREFACE 


The  Course  of  Lectures  comprising  this  volume  was 
given  before  the  New  York  Sunday-School  Association, 
during  the  past  winter,  i^'j^-'j.  At  the  commencement 
no  thought  of  their  publication  was  entertained  ;  it  be- 
came apparent,  however,  very  early  in  the  course,  that 
the  interest  awakened  by  them  could  not  be  satisfied  by 
their  delivery  only :  and  in  answer  to  the  frequent  and 
urgent  requests  of  the  Sunday-school  public,  application 
was  made  to  the  authors  fer  their  manuscripts  for  publi- 
cation. The  result  is  seen  in  the  present  volume,  which 
is  put  forth  with  the  confident  expectation  that  not  only 
many  who  were  unable  to  hear  the  lectures,  but  a  large 
number  of  those  who  did,  will  desire  to  preserve  this  vol- 
ume among  their  choice  reading. 

It  should  be  stated,  in  justice  to  those  whose  names 
are  annexed  to  the  lectures,  that  each  is  held  responsible 
only  for  the  opinions  expressed  by  himself. 

E.  C.  WILDER, 

President  N.  Y.  S.  S.  Association. 


CONTENTS, 


-THE  INSPIRA  TIOiV  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES  - page      5 

REV.   WM.   M.  TAYLOR,   D.  D. 

THE  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE 37 

REV.  CHARLES  A.   BRIGG3,  D.  D. 

THE  UNITY  AND  THE   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE jy 

REV.  R.  S.   STORRS,   D.  D. 

ANCIENT  HISTORY  IN  ITS  CONNECTION  WITH  THE 

OLD  TESTAMENT - 117 

REV.   HOV/ARD  CROSBY,  D.  D. 

THE  ADAPTATION  OF  THE  BIBLE  TO  THE  UNIVER- 
SAL NEEDS  OF  THE  SOUL,  AND  THE  WITNESS  OF 
CHRISTIAN  MEN  TO  ITS  DIVINE  AUTHORITY  AND 
POWER - -- 145 

REV.  ROBERT  RUSSELL  BOOTH,  D.  D. 

'MIRACLES    AND    PROPHECIES    WHICH    SHOW    THE 

BIBLE  DIVINE - i6g 

REV.  NOAH   PORTER,   D.  D. 

METHOD  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  AS  TEACHER 201 

REV.   GEO.   D.    BOARDMAN,  D.  D. 

THE  RIGHT  AND  RESPONSIBILITY  OF  THE  CHRIS- 
TIAN CONSCIENCE  IN  THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIP- 
TURES  - 221 

REV.  E.  A.  WASHBURN,   D.  D. 

'MAJESTY  AND  HOLINESS  OF  THE  BIBLE 251 

REV.   M.  SIMPSON,  D.  D.,LL.D. 


THE 


Inspiration  of  the  Scriptures. 


REV,  WILLIAM  M.  TAYLOR,  D,  D,, 

PASTOR  OF  THE  BROADWAY  TABERNACLE  CHURCH,  NEW  YORK. 


THE  INSPIRATION 


OF 


THE  SCRIPTURES 


In  entering  upon  the  consideration  of  the  inspiration 
of  the  Scriptures,  it  is  essential  that  we  have  first  a  clear 
idea  of  the  place  which  that  subject  holds  in  the  order  of 
a  logical  investigation  into  the  claims  and  characteristics 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  The  existence  and 
personality  of  God  is  the  great  postulate  of  the  soul;  and 
that  being  granted,  it  is  at  once  seen  to  be  both  a  possi- 
ble and  a  probable  thing  that  He  should  communicate  in 
some  way  with  man  in  his  state  of  conscious  guilt  and 
spiritual  helplessness.  The  Bible  claims  to  be  such  a 
communication  ;  and  we  can  trace  it  up  through  the  cen- 
turies to  the  dates  at  v/hich  its  several  component  parts 
were  written  ;  we  can  establish  that  its  books  were  writ- 
ten by  the  men  whose  names  they  bear ;  and  that  in 
their  Greek  and  Hebrew  forms  they  have  come  down  to 
us  with  wonderful  accuracy,  so  that  we  have  more  cer- 
tainty that  we  have  Paul's  epistles  as  he  wrote  them, 
than  we  have  that  the  letters  of  Cicero  to  his  friend  At- 
ticus  are  preserved  in  their  original  form.  All  these 
things  are  settled  for  the  sacred  books  precisely  as  we 


8  INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

settle  the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  other  ancient 
writings ;  and  the  next  topic  of  inquiry  is  the  credibility 
of  Scripture.  Allowing  that  we  have  here  genuine  an- 
cient books,  and  that  they  were  written  by  the  men 
whose  names  are  attached  to  them,  may  we  believe  their 
statements  ?  Here  we  are  met  by  the  first  serious  an- 
tagonism in  the  shape  of  a  denial  of  the  possibility  of 
the  supernatural.  It  is  alleged  that  miracles  are  impos- 
sible, and  therefore  that  the  books  containing  the  rec- 
ords of  them  are  incredible.  So  the  whole  subject  of 
the  possibility,  credibility,  and  evidential  value  of  mira- 
cles falls  to  be  considered  at  this  point;  and  it  is  only 
after  the  miracles  have  been  proved  to  be  real,  and  the 
miracle-workers  to  be  thus  divinely  attested  and  en- 
dorsed, that  we  advance  to  the  question  of  inspiration. 

In  the  arrangements  for  this  course  of  lectures,  and 
when  I  undertook  to  treat  this  very  important  and  diffi- 
cult subject,  I  expected  that  this  order  would  have  been 
observed ;  but  as  each  lecturer  had  to  be  taken  in  the 
week  when  he  could  be  got,  it  was  found  to  be  impossi- 
ble to  carry  out  this  design  ;  and  so  it  is  all  the  more 
needful  that  I  should  point  out  to  you  the  proper  logical 
sequence  of  the  different  themes  that  are  to  be  discussed 
before  you.  I  shall  have  to  take  for  granted  that  one 
writer  has  proved  to  you  the  genuineness  and  authen- 
ticity of  the  sacred  books,  and  that  another  has  estab- 
lished to  your  satisfaction  the  truth  of  the  miracles, 
and  the  reality  of  the  Deity  of  our  Lord  and  the  divin- 
ity of  the  commission  of  the  prophets  and  apostles.   And 


INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCIUTTURES.  9 

with  these  things  held  as  settled,  I  am  to  inquire  into  the 
subject  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures. 

The  term  rendered  in  2  Tim.  3  :  16,  **  given  by  inspi- 
ration of  God,"  signifies  literally  "  God-breathed  ;"  and  it 
implies  that  the  writings  of  the  Old  Testament,  of  which 
Paul  is  there  speaking,  were  the  result  of  a  certain  influ- 
ence exerted  by  God  upon  their  authors,  who,  as  Peter 
has  it,  "  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost." 
The  word,  then,  may  be  held  as  intimating  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  was  especially  and  miraculously  present  with  and 
in  the  writers,  revealing  to  them  truths  which  they  did 
not  know  before,  and  guiding  them  alike  in  their  record 
of  these  truths,  and  of  the  transactions  of  which  they 
were  eye  and  ear  witnesses,  so  that  they  were  enabled  to 
present  them  with  substantial  accuracy  to  the  minds  of 
others. 

The  peculiarity  of  this  definition  lies  in  the  word 
"  miraculously."  Many  would  say  all  the  rest,  but  would 
falter  over  that.  They  conceive  inspiration  to  be  only  a 
higher  degree  of  genius,  and  deny  that  there  is  anything 
supernatural  and  peculiar  in  the  case  of  the  writers  of 
the  Bible.  But  in  opposition  to  that  opinion  we  cite  the 
declarations  of  the  men  themselves,  who  stand  before  us 
as  men  divinely  endorsed  by  miracle,  and  who  must  be 
held  to  be  the  best  witnesses  in  the  case.  When  David 
said,  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  spake  by  me,  and  his  word 
was  in  my  tongue,"  he  meant  something  more  than  the 
apostrophe  to  the  muse  with  which  the  Iliad  begins,  or 
even  than  the  prayer  to  the  Spirit  which  forms  the  gem 


lo         INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

of  Paradise  Lost.  When  Isaiah  and  his  brethren  said, 
*'  Thus  saith  the  Lord/'  they  claimed  something  higher 
than  that  they  were  speaking  under  the  stirrings  of  po- 
etic rapture  ;  and  when  Paul  said  to  the  Corinthians, 
*'  Which  things  we  speak,  not  in  the  words  which  man's 
wisdom  teacheth,  but  which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth," 
he  used  language  to  which  you  will  find  no  parallel  in 
the  literature  of-  mere  human  genius.  And  no  man  of 
candor  or  intelligence  can  pass  from  the  writings  even 
of  the  unapproachable  Shakespeare  into  the  perusal  of 
the  Bible  without  feeling  that  the  difference  between  the 
two  is  one  not  simply  of  degree,  but  of  kind  ;  he  has  not 
merely  ascended  to  a  loftier  outlook  in  the  same  human 
dwelling,  but  he  has  gone  into  a  new  region  altogether. 
There  is  what  we  may  call  a  certain  "  unknown  quality" 
in  this  book  which  clearly  distinguishes  it  from  others ; 
and  if  we  may  take  its  own  explanation  of  the  matter, 
that  unknown  quality  is  divine  inspiration. 

Now  it  may  clear  away  much  of  the  obscurity  which 
has  been  thrown  around  this  subject  if  we  distinguish 
between  things  that  differ,  and  it  may  serve  to  render 
our  remarks  more  memorable  if  we  group  them  under  a 
few  appropriate  headings. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  then,  you  will  observe  that  Scrip- 
ture is  entirely  silent  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the  divine 
influence  wrought  upon  the  minds  of  the  authors,  or  the 
kind  of  agency  of  which  they  were  the  subjects.  God  never 
answers  the  question  "  How  .^"  When  in  regard  to  the 
new  birth  Nicodemus  asked,  "How  can  these  things  be  .'*" 


INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.         ii 

he  received  for  answer  a  reiteration  of  its  necessity.  And 
when  men  ask  into  the  "  how"  of  gravitation  or  cohesion, 
they  are  met  with  the  same  silence.  So  in  regard  to  in- 
spiration, we  have  no  information  whatever  as  to  the 
mode  of  its  action  ;  we  are  pointed  only  to  results.  We 
must  not  allow  ourselves  therefore  to  wander  beyond  the 
record,  and  speculate  with  Dick,  Doddridge,  and  others, 
on  degrees  of  inspiration,  such  as  superintendence,  ele- 
vation, or  suggestion,  All  such  attempts  are  ensnaring, 
and  tend  only  to  confuse  us  in  regard  to  a  subject  which 
is  mysterious  enough  in  itself. 

2.  In  the  second  place,  we  must  distinguish  between 
inspiration  and  revelation.  The  most  cursory  perusal  of 
the  Bible  will  show  that  it  consists  of  two  different  kinds 
of  records  :  first,  those  of  truths  directly  and  imme- 
diately imparted  to  the  mind  of  the  writer  by  God,  and 
which  he  could  have  learned  in  no  other  manner ;  and 
second,  those  of  events  that  occurred  before  the  writer's 
own  observation,  and  of  sayings  that  fell  upon  his  own 
ears.  Thus  Paul  received  the  account  of  the  institution 
of  the  Lord's  Supper  "  by  revelation,"  and  he  went  up  to 
Jerusalem  "by  revelation  ;"  but  when  he  is  narrating  the 
incidents  connected  with  his  interview  with  Peter  at 
Antioch,  he  is  telling  facts  which  were  as  well  known  to 
others  as  they  were  to  him.  There  is  therefore  a  very 
apparent  distinction  between  these  two  things  ;  but  in- 
spiration touches  the  written  accounts  of  them  both,  and 
it  is  the  same  for  them  both.  Its  province  is  to  secure 
accuracy  in  the  transmission  of  truth,  whether  that  truth 


12         INSPIRATION  OF  I  HE  SCRIPTURES. 

be  a  revelation  directly  received  from  God,  or  the  history 
of  something  which  has  occurred  before  the  eyes  of  men 
on  earth.  Hence  though  the  whole  Scripture  is  inspired, 
it  does  not  stamp  with  divine  authority  every  sentiment 
which  it  reports  as  uttered  by  the  men  of  whom  it  speaks, 
or  mark  with  the  divine  approval  every  action  which  is 
related  in  it  as  performed  by  those  whose  biographies  it 
contains.  In  the  Book  of  Job,  for  example,  inspiration 
gives  with  equal  accuracy  the  language  of  Jehovah,  the 
words  of  Satan,  and  the  speeches  of  Job  and  his  three 
friends ;  but  it  does  not  therefore  place  them  all  on  the 
same  level  of  authority.  Each  speaker  is  responsible  for 
his  own  utterances,  and  neither  Job  nor  Bildad  nor  Zo- 
phar  nor  Eliphaz  nor  Elihu  spoke  by  inspiration  of  God. 
They  gave  utterance  to  their  own  opinions,  and  all  that 
inspiration  vouches  for  is  that  no  one  of  them  is  misrep- 
resented, but  that  each  spoke  the  sentiments  that  are 
here  attributed  to  him.  This  may  seem  so  evident  as  to 
be  a  mere  truism ;  but  even  such  a  thinker  as  Coleridge 
has  charged  the  advocates  of  the  verbal  theory  of  inspi- 
ration (and  if  his  charge  is  true  at  all,  it  is  equally  so  of 
the  plenary  theory  which  we  adopt)  with  the  palpable 
absurdity  of  making  God  responsible  for  all  the  half- 
truths  uttered  by  those  ancient  debaters  ;  and  so  it  be- 
comes us,  holding  as  we  do  to  the  fact  that  inspiration 
guarantees  the  accuracy  of  the  report,  to  repudiate  and 
expose  the  ridiculous  perversion  of  the  truth  which  is 
industriously  attributed  to  us.  Because  a  sentence  of 
Satan's  is  recorded  in  Job,  and  also  in  the  history  of  our 


INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.         13 

Lord's  temptation,  and  because  I  believe  that  Satan  has 
been  in  both  instances  correctly  rejDresented,  it  does  not 
follow  that  I  must  also  believe  that  he  spoke  by  inspiration. 
And  the  same  is  true  of  every  interlocutor  introduced 
into  the  sacred  narratives.  Claudius  Lysias  was  not  in- 
spired to  write  his  letter  to  Felix  because  that  letter  is 
preserved  in  the  book  of  the  Acts ;  but  the  inspiration 
of  Luke  vouches  for  the  accuracy  of  the  representation 
which  he  has  given  of  the  letter — that  is  all.  So,  again, 
the  fact  that  David's  cruelty  to  the  Ammonites  is  re- 
corded in  the  Book  of  Kings  does  not  imply  that  God 
approved  it.  The  inspiration  of  the  book  vouches  only 
for  the  accuracy  of  the  record.  Only  when  he  who 
speaks  is  speaking  in  God's  name,  and  is  a  recognized 
prophet  or  apostle,  have  we  any  right  to  regard  his  utter- 
ances as  of  divine  authority.  This  distinction  between 
revelation  and  inspiration  must  be  clearly  understood,  for 
some  of  the  most  plausible  objections  to  the  common 
theory  have  arisen  from  the  fact  that  by  many  it  has 
been  either  unrecognized  or  ignored. 

3.  In  the  third  place,  we  must  distinguish  between 
inspiration  and  verbal  dictation.  The  Holy  Spirit  did 
not  employ  the  writers  as  copying  machines.  He  used 
the  men  themselves,  and  spoke  through  their  individual- 
ity to  others.  He  wrought  in  and  with  and  through 
their  spirits,  so  as  to  preserve  their  individuality,  while 
yet  he  transmitted  his  truth.  The  gold  was  his  ;  the 
mould  was  theirs.  If  you  ask  me  whether  inspiration 
affected  the  words,  I  must  answer  Yes,  for  it  could  not 


14        INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

insure  the  correct  transmission  of  thought,  without  in 
some  way  affecting  the  words  ;  but  it  affected  the  words 
not  directly  and  immediately  by  dictating  them  in  the 
ears  of  the  writers,  but  mediately,  through  working  on 
their  minds,  and  producing  there  such  vivid  and  clear 
ideas  of  thoughts  and  facts,  that  the  writers  could  easily 
find  words  fitted  to  their  purpose.  The  Spirit  employed 
the  attention,  the  investigation,  the  memory,  the  educa- 
tion, the  fancy,  the  logic,  in  a  word,  all  the  characteristics 
of  the  writer,  and  wrought  through  these.  Hence  we 
find  Luke,  in  his  introduction  to  his  Gospel,  affirming 
that  he  had  made  dihgent  investigation  of  all  things  from 
the  very  beginning  of  Christ's  ministry.  Hence  also,  we 
have  peculiarities  of  style  in  the  productions  of  each  of  the 
sacred  penmen.  We  can  see  a  difference  between  the 
manner  of  Moses  and  that  of  Matthew ;  between  the 
songs  of  David  and  the  epigrammatic  proverbs  of  his 
son  ;  between  the  mystic  grandeur  of  Ezekiel  and  the 
simple  majesty  of  Isaiah ;  between  the  intellectual 
acuteness  of  Paul  and  the  keen  spiritual  intuition  of 
John.  We  must  conclude  therefore,  that  while  from  the 
divine  side  the  Holy  Spirit  gave  through  men  clearly 
and  faithfully  that  which  he  wished  to  communicate, 
from  the  humaia  side  that  communication  came  forth 
in  language  such  as  the  men  themselves  would  nat- 
urally have  chosen.  I  am  aware  that  many  would  sneer 
at  this  as  an  impossibility,  and  would  allege  that  if 
the  words  are  affected  by  inspiration  at  all,  there  must 
have  been  dictation.     But  the  "  must "  is  a  ''  non  seqniturr 


,^ 


INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.         15 

It  is  admitted  by  all  that  God  works  out  his  own  pur- 
poses in  the  government  of  the  world,  through  the  ordi- 
nary actions  of  men,  while  yet  no  violence  is  done  to  their 
personal  freedom.  It  is  admitted,  also,  that  God,  through 
the  gracious  operations  of  his  Spirit,  works  in  the  hearts 
of  his  people  so  as  to  develop  the  new  man  in  each  of 
them,  while  yet  the  individuality  of  each  is  preserved, 
and  the  type  of  piety  is  just  as  distinct  in  each  Christian 
as  the  style  is  in  each  of  the  sacred  writers.  These 
cases  are  so  nearly  parallel  to  that  before  us,  as  to  sug- 
gest that  all  denials  of  the  possibility  of  inspiration  with- 
out the  destruction  of  individual  characteristics,  are  as 
unphilosophical  as  they  are  arrogant. 

4.  In  the  fourth  place,  I  remark  that,  in  the  repro- 
duction of  discourses,  inspiration  is  not  verbatim  re- 
porting. This  follows  from  what  I  have  already  said,  for 
reporting  would  have  been  a  mere  mechanical  operation; 
but  the  Spirit  used  the  memories,  the  intuitions,  the 
judgments,  and  indeed,  the  idiosyncrasies  of  the  writers, 
so  that  while  each  gives  that  of  the  discourse  which,  as  I 
may  so  express  it,  adhered  to  himself,  he  was  enabled  to 
give  it  with  substantial  accuracy.  No  one  of  the  sacred 
writers  professes  to  give  a  complete  account  of  every- 
thing that  Jesus  said  on  any  one  occasion,  f-or  John  is 
careful  to  declare  that  if  such  a  thing  had  been  attempt- 
ed, "  the  world  itself  could  not  contain  the  books  that 
should  be  written."  But  the  Spirit  so  wrought  in  them, 
and  through  them,  that  what  they  did  write  w^as  in  sub- 
stance true.    Thus,  in  the  case  of  the  title  over  the  cross, 


1 6         INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

each  of  the  four  evangeHsts  gives  different  words.  In 
Matthew  it  stands  thus  :  "  This  is  Jesus,  the  King  of  the 
Jews."  In  Mark,  thus  :  *'  The  King  of  the  Jews."  In 
Luke,  thus  :  "  This  is  the  King  of  the  Jews."  In  John, 
thus  :  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth  the  King  of  the  Jesus."  Now 
if  inspiration  had  been  mere  verbatim  reporting,  then 
these  four  would  have  been  alike;  but  since  the  Holy 
Spirit  used  the  memories  of  the  evangelists,  there  are 
verbal  differences,  while  in  the  great  matter  which  fas- 
tened itself  on  the  memory  of  each,  namely,  that  Pilate 
had  acknowledged  the  royalty  of  Jesus,  they  are  all  alike. 
That  was  the  substance  of  the  title,  and  in  conveying 
that,  accuracy  is  secured.  Now  let  it  be  observed  that 
by  using  the  sacred  penmen  thus,  the  Holy  Spirit  has 
let  us  see  the  Saviour's  history  from  four  different  stand- 
points, and  by  so  much  the  more  has  increased  our 
knowledge  of  him.  Hugh  Miller,  in  one  of  the  most  in- 
teresting of  his  writings,*  has  remarked,  concerning  the 
imitative  faculty,  that  he  has  seen  it  rendered  valuable 
by  being  set  in  the  literary  attainment  of  a  newspaper 
reporter,  so  that  he  has  had  to  estimate  at  a  different 
value,  the  respective  reports-  of  gentlemen  of  the  press, 
equal  in  their  powers  of  memory  and  in  general  acquire- 
ment, and  unequal  merely  in  the  degree  in  which  they 
possessed  the  imitative  faculty.  In  the  reports  of  the 
one  class,  he  had  found  only  the  meaning  of  the  speakers, 
in  those  of  the  other,  both  the  meaning  and  the  speakers 
too.  Now  this  difference  in  men  reproducing  the  sub- 
*  "  First  Impressions  of  England,"  page  282. 


INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.  17 

stance  of  what  others  have  said  in  our  own  day,  may  en- 
able us  to  understand  how  it  is  that  through  the  eyes  of 
John's  intuitional  character  we  see  in  his  Gospel  so 
much  more  of  Christ's  deeper  nature,  than  we  do  through 
Matthew's  narrative  ;  and  how  in  the  Gospel  of  ]\Iark 
we  are  made  so  much  better  acquainted  with  the  Lord's 
looks  and  gestures,  than  we  are  in  that  of  Luke.  Each 
took  all  that  his  own  individuality,  and  the  purpose 
which  he  had  in  view  in  writing,  attracted  to  him  ;  but 
it  is  not  professed  that  either  one  of  them  by  himself,  or 
the  whole  of  them  put  together,  give  a  perfectly  com- 
plete account  of  every  word  the  Saviour  spoke  on  any 
one  occasion,  far  less  of  all  the  words  he  uttered  in  his 
public  ministry.  Yet  what  each  gives  is,  so  far  as  it 
goes,  a  correct  representation  of. the  Lord.  If  each  had 
given  simply  a  full  verbatim  report  of  the  discourses 
which  he  heard,  then  whenever  they  came  upon  the  same 
address,  they  would  have  been  only  reproductions  of  each 
other,  like  the  several  pages  in  a  manifold  writer,  and  it 
would  have  been  said  at  once  that  the  fourfold  testimony 
was  virtually  only  one.  But  as  it  is,  not  only  have  we 
four  views  of  Christ,  taken  from  so  many  different 
points,  but  we  have  four  independent  human  witnesses, 
by  whose  testimony  the  truth  of  the  facts  of  the  gospel 
may  be  established. 

5.  I  remark  in  the  fifth  place,  that  inspiration  is  not 
sanctification.  The  possession  of  this  gift  was  no  proof 
of  the  personal  holiness  of  him  who  had  it.  Balaam  was 
inspired,  and  Saul  prophesied  with  the  students  at  Ramah, 

2* 


1 8         INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

and  so  we  must  distinguish  between  the  inspiration  and  the 
holiness  of  the  man.  All  gifts  are  not  graces.  Inspiration 
is  a  gift,  sanctification  is  a  grace.  The  one  is  no  guar- 
antee of  the  other.  Yet,  obvious  as  this  distinction  is,  it 
has  been  often  overlooked.  Thus  one  of  the  most  ingen- 
ious of  the  modern  opponents  to  the  common  view  of  in- 
spiration has  said,  "  We  all  know  that  Peter  reasoned 
very  perversely  about  the  circumcision,  and  that  Paul  at 
once  vanquished  him  in  argument."  But  we  know  noth- 
ing of  the  kind.  What  we  do  know  is  that  Peter  acted 
in  a  manner  inconsistent  with  his  own  avowed  views. 
Neither  his  teachings  nor  his  reasonings  were  at  fault. 
It  was  his  conduct  that  was  blameworthy.  Not  his  in- 
spiration as  a  teacher,  but  his  sanctification  as  a  Chris- 
tian, was  defective. 

6.  Finally,  the  inspiration  of  Scripture  does  not  in- 
volve in  it  the  infallible  guidance  of  all  the  copyists  and 
translators  of  the  sacred  books.  In  the  early  Christian 
centuries,  and  on  till  the  period  of  the  invention  of  print- 
ing, copies  could  be  multiplied  only  by  transcription ; 
and  that  must  have  caused  many  inaccuracies  which  only 
a  continuous  miracle,  such  as  we  have  no  warrant  to 
expect,  could  have  prevented.  Again,  the  translation 
from  the  original  language  into  our  own  tongue  and  into 
other  tongues  was  a  human  work,  and  like  everything 
purely  human  is  marred  by  imperfections.  We  must 
therefore  be  on  our  guard  against  charging  inspiration 
with  such  mistakes  as  have  arisen  from  either  of  these 
causes  ;  while  from  the  progress  made  in  recent  times 


INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.  19 

in  the  sciences  of  Biblical  criticism  and  philology,  we 
may  expect  that  we  shall  come  nearer  and  nearer  to  the 
sacred  autographs  and  so  minimize  the  difficulties  that 
have  heretofore  pressed  on  every  theory  which  has  been 
advanced  regarding  inspiration. 

But  now,  having  attempted  to  show  you  what  inspira- 
tion is,  by  a  process  of  differentiation  which  has  made 
manifest  to  you  what  it  is  not,  I  proceed  to  the  proof 
that  the  word  of  God  is  -authoritatively  inspired.  There 
are  many  lines  of  induction  on  which  we  might  travel  to 
that  conclusion,  but  as  it  is  impossible  to  take  more  than 
one  on  an  occasion  like  the  present,  I  select  the  testi- 
mony of  the  Lord  Jesus  himself.  Remember,  we  have 
on  other  grounds  arrived  at  the  conviction  that  he  is  to 
be  received  as  the  Son  of  God,  the  Saviour  of  the  world, 
and  so  we  are  not  reasoning  in  a  circle  when  we  call  him 
as  a  witness.  Now  on  the  very  face  of  the  Gospel  nar- 
ratives it  appears  that  he  was  in  the  habit  of  appealing 
to  the  Old  Testament  in  such  a  way  as  implied  that  it 
was  of  divine  origin  and  authority.  Of  the  law  he 
affirmed  that  not  one  jot  or  tittle  should  in  any  wise  pass 
from  it  till  all  was  fulfilled.  When  he  quoted  from  Da- 
vid he  affirmed  that  the  psalmist  "spake  in  the  Spirit," 
or  "by  the  Holy  Ghost."  He  declared  that  "the  Scrij> 
tures  must  be  fulfilled."  He  exhorted  his  hearers  to 
"search  the  Scriptures,"  and  he  made  one  of  his  argu- 
ments turn  on  the  declaration  that  "  the  Scripture  cannot 
be  broken."  And  if  we  may  take  the  words  of  those  who 
as  apostles  were  his  daily  companions  for  years,  or  were 


2  0         INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

specially  instructed  by  himself,  as  representing  his 
views,  then  the  manner  in  which  Peter  quoted  from  the 
ancient  Scripture  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  and  the  fact 
that  he  declares  that  holy  men  of  old  spake  as  they 
were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost ;  the  assertion  of  Paul 
that  all  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and 
the  method  in  which  that  apostle  constantly  treats  the 
Old  Testament  in  his  epistles ;  the  allegation  of  the 
author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  that  God  spoke 
to  the  fathers  by  the  prophets,  and  the  formula  by  which 
the  same  writer  cites  from  the  book  of  Psalms,  saying, 
"wherefore  as  the  Holy  Ghost  saith,"  all  indicate  that 
in  the  view  of  our  Lord  and  his  apostles  the  Old  Testa- 
ment was  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  of  infalli- 
ble authority.  We  cannot  therefore  give  up  the  authori- 
ty of  the  Old  Testament,  without  compromising  that  of 
the  New ;  and  in  that  fact  you  have  the  reason  why  so 
many  assailants  of  Christianity  direct  their  first  batteries 
against  Moses  and  the  prophets.  We  hang  the  Old 
Testament  on  the  neck  of  the  Saviour.  It  has  the  en- 
dorsement and  imprimatur  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  we 
receive  it  as  inspired  on  his  authority. 

But  what  of  that  of  the  New }  We  reply  that  we 
receive  that  also  on  the  word  of  Christ,  because  of 
the  promises  which  he  gave  to  his  apostles,  with  refer- 
ence to  their  public  work  in  the  organizing  of  the  early 
church,  and  the  giving  to  it  of  the  word  of  the  truth 
of  the  gospel.  There  are  two  classes  of  promises  given 
to   the   apostles,    involving   in   them    the   assurance 


INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.  21 

plenary  inspiration.  The  first  is  to  be  found  exclu- 
sively in  the  three  earliest"  gospels,  and  of  these  the 
passage  Matt.  10:19-20  may  be  taken  as  an  example: 
"  When  they  deliver  you  up,  take  no  thought  how  or 
what  ye  shall  speak  :  for  it  shall  be  given  you  in  that 
same  hour  what  ye  shall  speak.  For  it  is  not  ye  that 
speak,  but  the  Spirit  of  your  Father  which  speaketh 
in  you."  Now  if  these  words  mean  anything  at  all  they 
imply,  that  on  all  public  occasions  on  which  the  apostles 
should  be  called  to  defend  themselves,  whether  before 
councils  or  synagogues,  before  governors  and  kings,  they 
would  be  infallibly  guided  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  to  what 
and  how  they  should  speak.  The  second  class  of  passa- 
ges is  to  be  found  in  the  farewell  discourse  which  John 
has  preserved  for  us  in  the  fourteenth,  fifteenth,  and  six- 
teenth chapters  of  his  Gospel,  and  which  are  as  follows  : 
"But  the  Comforter,  which  is  the  Holy  Ghost,  whom  the 
Father  will  send  in  my  name,  he  shall  teach  you  all  things, 
and  bring  all  things  to  your  remembrance,  whatsoever  I 
have  said  unto  you."  "  When  the  Comforter  is  come,  whom 
I  will  send  unto  you  from  the  Father,  even  the  Spirit  of 
truth,  which  proceedeth  from  the  Father,  he  shall  testify 
of  me:  and  ye  also  shall  bear  witness,  because  ye  have 
been  with  me  from  the  beginning."  "Howbeit  when  he, 
the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  come,  he  will  guide  you  into  all 
truth  :  for  he  shall  not  speak  of  himself  ;  but  whatsoever 
he  shall  hear,  that  shall  he  speak:  and  he  will  show  you 
things  to  come.  He  shall  glorify  me :  for  he  shall  re- 
ceive of  mine,  and  shall  show  it  unto  you."     Now  that 


2  2         INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

the  apostles  understood  these  words  to  mean  both  reve- 
lation and  inspiration  is  manifest  from  many  statements 
incidentally  made  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  from 
expressions  employed  by  Peter  and  Paul  in  their  epistles. 
When  the  vision  came  to  Peter  on  the  housetop  at  Joppa, 
he  recognized  it  as  a  fulfilment  of  Christ's  promise,  and 
said"  regarding  the  truth*  then  taught  him,  "The  Lord 
hath  showed  me."  So  Paul,  speaking  of  certain  matters 
which  he  narrates,  says,  "  I  have  received  of  the  Lord,  that 
which  also  I  delivered  unto  you  ;"  and  of  a  journey  which 
he  took  to  Jerusalem  he  remarks,  "  I  went  up  by  revela- 
tion." Again,  iji  regard  to  his  teaching,  he  says,  "  which 
things  we  speak  not  in  the  words  which  man's  wisdom 
teacheth,  but  which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth."  Again, 
when  he  declares  that  the  church  is  built  upon  the  foun- 
dation of  the  apostles  and  prophets,  he  asserts  by  impli- 
cation, that  the  New  Testament  apostles  occupy  a  coor- 
dinate place  with  the  Old  Testament  prophets,  and  as  the 
latter  spoke  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  so  also  must  it  have  been 
with  the  former;  while  Peter,  in  referring  to  Paul's 
writings  and  classing  them  with  the  other  Scriptures, 
plainly  implies  that  they  also  were  given  by  inspiration 
of  God.  I  might  here  greatly  enlarge  and  bring  togeth- 
er passages  which  have  underlying  them  the  claim  on 
the  part  of  their  authors  to  be  received  as  inspired.  But 
I  forbear.  I  wish  to  show  you  that  as  we  receive  the 
Old  Testament  on  the  word  of  Christ's  endorsement,  so 
we  receive  the  New  on  the  word  of  his  promise  to  his 
apostles.     In  the  one   case  he  was   looking   back   and 


INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.         23 

stamping  with  his  authority  what  had  been  already 
written  ;  in  the  other  he  was  looking  forward,  and  giving 
his  assurance  that  in  producing  all  that  was  necessary 
for  the  initiation  and  perpetuation  of  his  church,  his 
apostles  would  be  guided  by  infallible  inspiration.  Thus 
on  Christ's  word  we  rest  the  whole  Bible,  and  because 
we  believe  in  him,  we  accept  it  as  divinely  inbreathed. 

But  it  may  be  well  to  look  for  a  little  at  some  of  the 
objections  which  have  been  raised  against  the  plenary  in- 
spiration of  the  Scriptures.  Of  course  it  will  be  under- 
stood that  I  cannot  take  up  all  the  difficulties  which  have 
been  suggested.  To  do  that  would  require,  not  a  lecture, 
but  many  volumes ;  still,  classifying  them  under  three 
heads,  I  may  give  you  a  few  general  principles  bearing 
upon  each  of  them. 

I.  Take,  then,  the  assertion  that  the  view  which  we 
have  presented  is  inconsistent  with  the  existence  of 
apparent  discrepancies  in  the  narratives  which  the  sacred 
writers  give  of  the  same  occurrences.  Now  without 
entering  upon  individual  cases,  it  is  pertinent  to  remind 
you  here  of  what  I  have  already  said,  that  inspiration 
does  not  guarantee  the  infallibility  of  copyists,  and  it  is 
undeniable  that  many  of  these  seeming  inconsistencies 
may  be  traced  to  the  carelessness  of  scribes.  Many  of 
the  much-talked-of  discrepancies  between  the  books  of 
Kings  and  Chronicles,  as  well  as  a  few  of  those  presented 
in  the  New  Testament  are  at  once  accounted  for  in  that 
way ;  for  the  slightest  change  in  a  letter  or  a  word,  such 
as  a  weary  transcriber  after  a  long  day's  work  would  be 


24        INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES, 

very  liable  to  make,  accounts  for  the  disagreement,  ana 
the  emendation  being  made,  harmony  is  at  once  restored. 
This  is  especially  the  case  in  those  statements  in  the  Old 
Testament  which  relate  to  numbers ;  for  as  in  the  Hebrew 
language  there  were  no  numerals,  but  the  letters  of  the 
alphabet  were  made  to  do  duty  for  figures,  and  as  some 
of  these  letters  differ  from  others  only  by  the  merest 
hair-stroke,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  in  the  process  of  trans- 
cription errors  have  crept  in  ;  but  now  that  the  science  of 
Biblical  criticism  is  so  far  advanced,  we  may  hope  to  get 
nearer  the  original  readings,  and  the  more  that  hope  is 
realized,  the  fewer  will  such  discrepancies  become. 

Again  I  would  recall  what  I  said  regarding  the  differ- 
ence between  inspiration  and  verbatim  reporting,  and  that 
will  help  to  remove  much  of  the  difficulty  arising  from 
the  existence  of  these  apparent  differences,  while  it  leaves 
the  infallibility  of  the  books  intact.  For  the  Spirit  using 
men,  did  not  intend  to  give  a  complete  account  of  all  that 
was  said  or  done  on  any  occasion.  He  helped  each  to 
give  what  he  saw  or  heard,  so  that  he  gave  that  correctly ; 
and  as  no  one  man  could  see  everything  that  was  con- 
nected with  even  one  incident,  or  comprehend  all  that 
was  implied  in  even  one  saying  of  Christ,  it  could  not 
but  be  that  differences  should  arise.  You  may  take  four 
photographic  views  of  one  face  which  shall  seem  as  in- 
consistent with  each  other  as  the  four  gospels  are,  and 
yet  they  shall  be  all  correct,  because  they  are  taken 
from  different  angles.  The  records  are  not  exhaus- 
tive; if  they  had  been,  they  would  have  been  too  volu- 


INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.         25 

minoiis  to  be  of  service ;  but  because  they  are  not,  we 
must  be  content  to  accept  them,  with  certain  lacunar 
which  look  Hke  discrepancies,  but  which  could  be  so  fill- 
ed as  to  remove  all  perplexity.  Now  in  regard  to  these, 
all  that  is  needed  is  the  suggestion  of  a  probable  solution. 
The  burden  of  proof  lies  here  on  the  assailant,  and  he  is 
required  to  show,  not  only  the  appearance  of  inconsis- 
tency, but  also  the  impossibility  of  removing  it,  and  that 
I  take  it,  will  be  impossible,  for  the  hardest  thing  to  do 
is  to  prove  a  negative. 

Further,  we  must  not  forget,  that  in  the  process 
of  investigation,  many  of  these  difficulties  have  been 
fully  removed,  and  the  fact,  that  every  new  discovery 
among  the  monumental  records  of  antiquity  has  tended 
to  corroborate  the  Scriptures,  is  not  without  its  signifi- 
cance in  this  regard.  He  would  be  a  fool,  who  should 
think  of  giving  up  the  Bible  as  a  divine  book,  because 
he  does  not  certainly  know  the  unrecorded  third  fact, 
that  is  needed  to  put  the  account  of  the  suicide  of  Judas 
in  Matthew  into  harmony  with  the  words  used  by  Peter 
in  the  first  chapter  of  the  Acts.  Both  accounts  are  in- 
complete, yet  both  correct  in  what  they  state.  If  we  could 
have  put  either  Matthew  or  Peter  under  cross-examina- 
tion, the  first  question  might  have  elicited  the  solution ; 
but  as  that  is  now  impossible,  we  may  leave  it  as  it  is, 
.  believing  both  are  right,  and  remembering  that  an  inspir- 
ed record  is  one  thing  and  an  exhaustive  history  is  quite 
another,  and  is,  in  so  many  words  disclaimed  by  the 
author  of  the  fourth  gospel,  for  himself  and  brethren. 

3 


26        INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

II.  Another  class  of  objections  is  that  which  is 
brought  by  those  who  allege  that  the  sacred  writers  are 
in  some  of  their  narratives  inconsistent  with  ancient  his- 
torians. Now  here  it  is  pertinent  to  say,  that  inspiration 
altogether  apart,  we  have  just  as  much  reason  to  believe 
in  the  accuracy  of  Luke  or  of  the  Chronicles  of  the 
Kings,  as  we  have  to  accept  the  statements  of  Josephus 
or  Berosus.  We  cannot  therefore  condemn  too  severely 
the  conduct  of  these  who  when  they  find  that  Josephus 
is  silent  on  any  matter,  or  says  something  regarding  it, 
which  is  different  from  the  sacred  books,  therefore  they 
must  be  wrong  and  he  must  be  right.  As  Alford  has 
said,  "Josephus  teems  with  inaccuracies,"  so  we  cannot 
admit  his  infallibility,  and  let  that  be  employed  as  an 
engine  against  the  Bible.  Further,  in  some  recent  in- 
stances the  truth  of  the  sacred  narrative  has  been  vindi- 
cated in  a  remarkable  manner.  I  need  only  refer  to  two, 
namely,  the  discovery  from  the  inscription  on  the  great 
Babylonian  cylinder  that  the  eldest  son  of  Nabonnedus 
was  named  Bel-shareser,  and  that  he  had  been  admitted 
by  his  father  to  a  share  in  the  government,  a  key  which 
enables  us  to  unlock  the  difficulty  created  by  the  frag- 
ment of  Berosus  preserved  by  Josephus  from  which  it 
appeared  that  Nabonnedus  the  king  fled  to  Borsippa  and 
there  was  captured  by  Cyrus.  Thus  both  statements  are 
seen  to  be  correct.  Again  the  minute  accuracy  of  Luke 
which  was  apparently  compromised  by  the  fact  that  he 
had  called  Sergius  Paulus  the  drQ^Trarof,  or  proconsul  of 
Cyprus,  while  it  was  alleged  the  proper  title  was  procura- 


INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.         27 

tor,  has  been  fully  vindicated  by  the  discovery  of  some 
coins  bearing  the  effigy  of  the  Emperor  Claudius,  and  in 
the  centre  reverse  occurs  the  word  Kvirpiuv,  of  the  Cypri- 
ans, while  the  surrounding  legend  gives  the  title  used  by 
Luke  to  a  person  who  must  have  been  the  immediate 
successor  or  predecessor  of  Sergius  Paulus.  Now  with 
these  and  many  similar  cases  before  us,  we  need  not  be 
disturbed  by  the  occasional  appearance  of  discrepancy 
between  the  sacred  and  profane  historians.  All  we  have 
to  do  is  to  wait,  and  give  a  liberal  assistance  to  those 
who  are  diligently  exploring  Eastern  lands,  with  the  full 
assurance  that  whatever  "  records  leap  to  light,"  not  only 
will  the  glory  of  the  Bible  "not  be  shamed,"  but  its 
authority  will  be  vindicated. 

III.  A  third  class  of  objections  is  connected  with  the 
discoveries  of  modern  science.  It  is  alleged  that  its  au- 
thors could  not  have  been  inspired,  because  their  state- 
ments are  declared  to  be  inconsistent  with  the  facts 
which  science  has  discovered.  Now,  in  answer  to  this, 
the  following  things  have  to  be  noted  : 

1.  The  Bible  was  not  given  to  be  a  revelation  of  phys- 
ical science ;  and  so  whatever  references  it  makes  to 
things  in  that  department  are  incidental. 

2.  In  these  references  its  writers  employ  the  language 
of  the  common  people  of  their  age.  They  must  have 
done  so,  or  they  would  have  been  unintelligible  to  those 
to  whom  they  spoke  or  wrote.  A  book  which  is  to  in- 
struct men  must  employ  their  vocabulary.  Hence,  even 
in  speaking  of  God,  the  inspired  writers  refer  to  Him  in 


28         INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

terms  which  are  fully  appropriate  only  to  men.  Now  on 
the  same  principle  as  we  account  for  the  anthropomor- 
phisms used  by  the  prophets  and  apostles  when  speaking 
of  God,  so  we  explain  the  use  of  common  and  current  lan- 
guage by  them  on  scientific  subjects.  There  were  no 
other  forms  of  speech  then  in  use,  and  they  had  to  ac- 
commodate themselves  to  the  vocabulary  of  the  times, 
just  as  in  teaching  your  child  you  have  to  confine  your- 
self as  nearly  as  possible  to  terms  he  understands.  Had 
they  done  otherwise,  their  words  would  have  been  reject- 
ed by  the  men  of  their  own  age  just  for  containing  that 
which  our  modern  scientists  complain  that  they  omit. 

3.  Considering  that  these  two  things  are  so,  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Scriptures  on  certain  scientific  facts  is  very 
striking,  and  tends  to  the  establishment  of  the  fact  that 
the  Bible,  though  never  in  advance  of  the  science  of  any 
age,  is,  when  rightly  interpreted,  always  abreast  of  sci- 
ence. It  has  been  so  constructed  as  not  to  anticipate 
modern  discoveries  by  a  divine  revelation  of  the  things 
discovered  ;  and  yet  as  science  advances,  the  Bible  is 
found,  on  closer  study,  to  be  in  harmony  with  it.  In  this 
we  have  not  only  a  successful  reply  to  all  objections,  but 
also  a  clear  proof  of  the  inspiration  of  Scripture  along 
another  line  ;  for  as  one  has  acutely  said,  "  Only  one  see- 
ing the  end  from  the  beginning  could  so  adjust  the  lan- 
guage used  as  on  the  one  hand  to  make  it  tell  the  men 
of  the  existing  generation  no  more  than  they  otherwise 
knew  of  astronomical  or  geological  or  any  other  natural 
truth,  and  yet  on  the  other  to  make  it  such  that  the  men 


INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.         29 

of  all  future  generations  should  be  able,  in  the  long  run, 
and  without  violence,  to  explain  it  satisfactorily  in  the 
light  of  their  clearer  and  fuller  information  and  their 
more  advanced  and  accurate  science."*  In  verifica- 
tion of  this  take  a  few  illustrations.  In  that  part 
of  the  Book  of  Job  which  is  the  direct  utterance  of  Je- 
hovah, (38:12,)  we  have  the  following  passage:  "Hast 
thou  commanded  the  morning  since  thy  days  ;  and  caus- 
ed the  dayspring  to  know  his  place  ;  that  it  might  take 
hold  of  the  ends  of  the  earth,  that  the  wicked  might  be 
shaken  out  of  it  .'*  It  is  turned  as  clay  to  the  seal ;  and 
they  stand  as  a  garment."  Now  there  is  nothing  here 
to  reveal  to  men  the  rotatory  motion  of  the  earth  ;  yet 
that  being  discovered,  how  harmonious  with  it  is  the  de- 
scription, "  It  is  turned  as  clay  to  the  seal ;"  for  the  mo- 
tion of  the  clay  on  the  cylinder  as  it  takes  the  impres- 
sion, like  that  of  the  modern  printing-press,  is  precisely 
analogous  to  that  of  the  earth  as  it  receives  the  day- 
spring.  Again,  in  Ecclesiastes  i  :6,  we  read,  "The  wind 
goeth  toward  the  south,  and  turneth  about  unto  the 
north ;  it  whirleth  about  continually ;  and  the  wind  re- 
turneth  again  according  to  his  circuits."  This  does  not 
indeed  announce  beforehand  the  rotatory  law  of  storms ; 
but  the  words  are  perfectly  in  harmony  with  that  law, 
and  accurately  describe  the  motion  of  cyclones,  as  that 
has  been  discovered  by  recent  meteorological  observers. 
In  the  same  chapter  (verse  7)  we  have  words  which,  with- 
out describing  the  process  of  evaporation,  yet  imply  all 

*  "Reason  and  Revelation,"  by  R.  S.  Candlish,  D.  D.,  pp.  S0-S3. 

3* 


30         INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

that  we  now  mean  by  that  phrase :  "  All  the  rivers  run 
into  the  sea ;  yet  the  sea  is  not  full ;  unto  the  place  from 
whence  the  rivers  come,  thither  they  return  again."  And 
Amos  has  employed  language  which  clearly  presupposes 
that  which  modern  investigations  have  ascertained 
when  he  says,  "  Seek  him  that  maketh  the  seven  stars, 
and  Orion,  and  turneth  the  shadow  of  death  into  the 
morning,  and  maketh  the  day  dark  with  night ;  that  call- 
eth  for  the  waters  of  the  sea,  and  poureth  them  out  upon 
the  face  of  the  earth;  the  Lord  is  his  name."  (Amos 
5  : 8.)  So  again,  when  the  Lord  Jesus,  in  defending  him- 
self (John  5:17)  from  the  accusation  of  Sabbath-break- 
ing, says,  "  My  Father  worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work,"  he 
says  nothing  directly  about  the  length  of  the  days  in  the 
Creation  week ;  but  if  the  view  which  regards  them  as 
long  periods  be  accepted,  see  what  force  it  gives  to  his 
argument,  as  we  amplify  it  thus  :  "We  are  living  now  in 
the  seventh  day  of  the  Creation  week.  This  is  the  time 
of  Jehovah's  rest.  We  have  now  no  work  of  creation 
going  on ;  no  special  additions  have  been  made  to  the 
various  orders  of  plants  and  animals  on  the  surface  of 
the  earth  since  man  appeared;  and  in  that  sense  God 
has  been  resting.  But  though  he  has  not  called  any- 
thing new  into  existence,  he  has  been  continuously  at 
work  in  upholding  all  that  he  has  made,  and  he  has  put 
forth  special  remedial  efforts  for  the  restoration  of  man 
to  the  state  in  which  he  was  formed  at  first,  and  from 
which  he  fell  by  his  own  sin.  If,  therefore,  during  the 
Sabbath  of  Creation's  week,  and  while  God  is  resting,  he 


INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.         31 

can  yet  put  forth  special  exertions  for  the  redemption 
and  education  of  men,  I  am  only  following  in  the  same 
line  when,  on  the  Sabbath  of  an  ordinary  week,  and  while 
I  am  resting  from  labor  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  that 
term,  I  put  forth  my  energy  in  the  restoration  of  an  im- 
potent man  to  health.  My  Father  worketh  hitherto,  and 
I  work."  If  the  Sabbath  of  Creation's  week  has  lasted 
for  nearly  six  thousand  years,  and  for  anything  we  can 
see  may  last  for  thousands  of  years  to  come,  there  is  not 
only  no  incongruity,  but  also  perfect  consistency,  in  sup- 
posing that  each  of  the  other  days  was  a  period  long 
enough  for  all  the  requirements  of  modern  science. 

And,  to  take  only  one  example  more,  when  Paul  in 
his  argument  on  the  resurrection,  says,  (i  Cor.  15:40, 
41,)  "There  are  also  celestial  bodies  and  bodies  terres- 
trial :  but  the  glory  of  the  celestial  is  one,  and  the  glory 
of  the  terrestrial  is  another.  There  is  one  glory  of  the 
sun,  and  another  glory  of  the  stars  ;  for  one  star  differeth 
from  another  star  in  glory,"  he  is  not  referring  to  de- 
grees of  glory  among  the  saints  in  heaven,  but  illustra- 
ting the  truth  that  the  resurrection-body  will  be  fitted 
for  the  resurrection-life,  even  as  the  body  of  the  fish  is 
for  swimming,  and  that  of  the  bird  for  flying,  and  as  the 
physical  composition  of  each  heavenly  body  is  adapted 
to  its  place  in  the  universe.  We  had  to  take  all  that  on 
his  word  until  recent  times ;  but  now,  by  the  invention 
and  application  of  the  spectroscope,  astronomical  observ- 
ers, by  their  analysis  of  the  varying  lines  in  the  spectrum 
of  each,  declare  that  it  is  indeed  true  that  "  one  star  dif- 


32         INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

fereth  from  another  star  in  glory."  Thus  the  latest  science 
casts  its  light  upon  the  words  of  Paul,  whose  writing 
here  is  abreast  of  the  revelations  of  the  spectroscope, 
but  by  no  means  an  anticipation  of  them.  These  in- 
stances must  suffice,  but  are  enough  to  reassure  us,  and 
to  make  us  feel  that  the  word  of  God  has  everything  to 
hope  and  nothing  to  fear  from  the  advance  of  science. 

For  the  rest,  it  may  do  good  service  to  point  out  where 
precisely  the  alleged  discrepancies  between  the  Word  of 
God  and  science  begin  to  emerge.  "  The  scientific  man 
believes  in  the  infallibility  of  nature  ;  the  theologian  be- 
lieves in  the  infallibility  of  Scripture ;  and  the  differ- 
ences, of  which  so  much  is  made  in  these  days,  lie  not 
between  nature  and  revelation  in  themselves,  but  be- 
tween human  interpretations  of  them.  The  man  of  sci- 
ence interprets  his  facts  in  a  certain  way,  and  makes  cer- 
tain deductions  from  them.  These  interpretations  and 
deductions,  however,  are  not  infallible  ;  they  are  not  yet 
unquestioningly  -received  by  scientific  men  themselves. 
It  is  too  soon,  therefore,  to  speak  and  reason  as  if  they 
were  absolutely  correct. 

"Again,  the  theologian's  interpretations  of  Scripture 
are  by  no  means  infallible.  Many  of  them  which  were 
accepted  in  past  days,  have  been  disproved,  and  others 
substituted  for  them  ;  and  of  many  more  it  must  be  said 
that  they  are  still  unsettled.  For  instance,  he  would  be 
a  rash  man  who  should  assert  that  he  has  discovered 
with  infallible  accuracy,  the  meaning  of  the  first  chapter 
of  Genesis  ;  or  should  affirm  that  he  can  satisfactorily 


INSPIRATION  OF  THE   SCRIPTURES.         33 

unravel  the  chronology  of  the  early  chapters  of  that 
book.  These  questions,  and  many  others  like  them,  are 
still  sub  jiidice,  and  the  wise  course  for  all  parties  to  this 
modern  misunderstanding  is  to  wait,  with  mutual  respect 
for  each  other,  until  God,  in  his  providence  and  by  his 
Spirit,  shall  lead  to  such  interpretations  of  nature  on  the 
one  hand,  and  of  Scripture  on  the  other,  as  shall  make 
manifest  their  perfect  harmony.  Let  the  man  of  science 
go  on  with  perseverance,  and  let  him  not  take  any  mis- 
chievous delight  in  flinging  his  hypotheses  at  the  Word 
of  God.  Let  the  theologian  also  prosecute  his  inquiries 
with  diligence  and  devoutness,  and  let  him  give  over 
calling  men  of  science  by  evil  names.  They  seem  often 
to  be  working  against  each  other;  but  they  are  in  reality 
working  for  each  other  and  for  the  truth.  In  the  forma- 
tion of  the  tunnel  though  Mont  Cenis,  the  workmen  be- 
gan at  opposite  ends,  and  approached  each  other  mth 
drilling  machines  apparently  directed  against  each  other, 
but  met  at  length  in  the  middle  to  congratulate  each 
other  on  the  completion  of  their  great  undertaking,  be- 
cause they  were  working  under  the  same  supervision. 
So  it  will  be  with  our  theologians  and  men  of  science. 
God,  the  great  architect  of  providence,  is  superintending 
both  ;  and  by-and-by,  through  the  labors  of  both,  the 
mountain  of  difficulty  will  be  tunnelled  through,  no  more 
to  form  a  barrier  in  the  inquirer's  way. 

"  Much  also  may  be  done  in  this  matter  by  calling  at- 
tention to  such  principles  as  these,  namely,  that  the  Bi- 
ble  was    not  designed    to    be  a   revelation   of  physical 


34         INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

science  ;  that  its  references  to  all  such  subjects  are 
merely  incidental,  and  made  in  popular  language  ;  that, 
if  it  had  alluded  to  such  subjects  in  other  than  popular 
language,  it  would  have  been  unintelligible  to  those  to 
whom  it  was  first  given,  and  would  have  been  rejected  by 
them  as  containing  that  which  some  modern  philosophers 
complain  that  it  does  not  contain ;  that,  considering  the 
fact  that  it  refers  only  incidentally  to  these  topics,  its 
language  concerning  some  of  them  is  occasionally  very 
striking,  and  fully  in  harmony  with  modern  discoveries  ; 
and  finally,  that  considering  the  course  of  things  in  the 
past,  and  how  what  seemed  at  one  time  to  be  in  hopeless 
antagonism  to  God's  Word  is  now  held  intelligently  and 
consistently  with  it,  the  wise  course  will  be  for  both 
sides  to  wait  before  the  one  tries  to  prove  that  there  is 
contradiction,  or  the  other  to  enforce  a  harmony. 

"  Moreover,  we  should  not  allow  it  to  be  forgotten  that, 
all  advances  of  modern  science  notwithstanding,  there 
will  ever  be  deejD,  solemn,  all-important  experiences  in 
the  human  soul  which  only  God's  gospel  can  meet  ;  and 
if  we  dig  down  to  these  we  shall  go  so  much  lower  than 
science,  that  the  water  which  she  has  apparently  drawn 
from  our  well  will  return  into  our  spring.  There  will 
still  be  the  poison  of  sin,  which  no  earthly  antidote  can 
neutralize,  and  which  can  be  counteracted  only  by  the 
blood  of  the  Redeemer's  cross.  There  will  still  be  the 
sorrow  of  bereavement,  to  be  solaced  only  by  the  vision 
of  the  angel  at  the  door  of  the  sepulchre,  and  the  hearing 
of  his  soothing  words,  'Why  seek  ye  the  living  among 


INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.         35 

the  dead  ?  He  is  not  here  ;  he  is  risen  as  he  said  ;  come 
see  the  place  where  the  Lord  lay.*  There  will  still  be 
the  sense  of  lonesomeness  stealing  over  the  heart,  even 
amid  the  bustle,  and  business,  and  prosperity  of  the 
world,  to  be  dispelled  only  by  the  consciousness  of  the 
Saviour's  presence.  There  will  still  be  the  spirit-shud- 
der at  the  thought  of  death,  which  only  faith  in  Christ 
can  change  into  the  desire  to  depart  and  to  be  with  him, 
which  is  far  better.  For  these  things  science  has  no 
remedy,  and  philosophy  no  solace,  and,  strong  in  its  adap- 
tation to  these  irrepressible  necessities  of  the  human 
heart,  the  gospel  of  Christ  will  outlive  all  philosophical 
attack,  and  survive  every  form  of  scientific  unbelief. 

"  But  though  all  that  is  true,  I  would  not  have  you 
speak  of  religion  and  science  as  if  they  were  antagonists. 
They  are  elder  and  younger  sister  in  the  same  family  ; 
and  though  occasionally  they  may  seem  to  be  at  vari- 
ance, yet  let  but  some  deep  grief  enter  into  the  home,  or 
some  heavy  calamity  fall  upon  the  dwelling,  and  all  mis 
understanding  between  them  will  disappear ;  they  will 
lock  themselves  in  each  other's  arms,  and  science  will 
find  her  resting-place  on  the  bosom  of  religion.  You  can 
afford,  therefore,  to  bid  science  God-speed.  Her  tri- 
umphs will  in  the  end  contribute  to  the  gospel's  advance- 
ment. Is  it  not  written,  'All  things  are  yours '.^  And 
you  may  rest  assured  that  truth  in  one  department  can 
never  falsify  that  which,  on  its  own  evidence,  has  been 
already  ascertained  to  be  true  in  another."* 

*  "The  Ministry  of  the  Word  ;"  W.  M.  Taylor,  D.  D.,  pp.  301-305. 


36         INSPIRATION  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

And  now,  beloved  friends  and  fellow-laborers,  if  all 
this  be  true,  what  new  importance  does  it  give  to  your 
work  as  Sabbath-school  teachers !  You  are  handling  the 
Word  of  God.  See  that  you  do  not  handle  it  deceitfully ; 
but  "  as  of  sincerity,  but  as  of  God,  in  the  sight  of  God, 
speak  ye  in  Christ."  Do  not  corrupt  it  by  your  own 
additions,  or  explain  it  away  by  your  own  misinterpreta- 
tions of  its  meaning,  but  let  it  be  your  ambition  always 
to  let  it  speak  for  itself,  for  its  power  is  in  itself.  "  Is 
not  my  word  like  as  a  fire }  saith  the  Lord,  and  like  a 
hammer  that  breaketh  the  rock  in  pieces  T 

And  remember  also  the  responsibility  which  is  con- 
nected with  the  reading  of  it  for  yourselves.  It  is,  in 
one  sense,  a  precious  privilege  to  have  the  Bible,  but  its 
possession  involves  also  a  fearful  peril.  Improved,  it 
may  be  the  means  of  securing  an  entrance  into  glory. 
Neglected,  it  may  be  the  millstone  round  our  necks  to 
sink  us  deeper  in  perdition.  It  is  the  glory  of  our  age 
that  it  has  been  produced  at  a  price  that  puts  it  within 
the  reach  of  all  ;  but  we  may  not  forget  the  awful  truth 
which  Michael  Bruce  has  expressed  in  these  Hues,  which 
were  found  after  his  death  on  the  fly-leaf  of  his  copy  of 
the  Scriptures : 

"  'T  is  very  vain  of  me  to  boast 
How  small  a  price  this  Bible  cost; 
The  day  of  judgment  will  make  clear 
'T  was  very  cheap  or  very  dear." 


THE  I 

i 


Languages  of  the  Bible. 


REV.  CHARLES  A.  BRIGGS,  D.  D. 

PROFESSOR  OF  HEBREW  AND  COGNATE  LANGUAGES,  UNION  THEOLOGICAL 
SEMINARY,  NEW  YORK. 


THE 


Languages  of  the  Bible, 


PART   I 


The  languages  of  the  Bible  were  prepared  by  Divine 
Providence  as  the  most  suitable  ones  for  declarins;  the 
divine  revelation  to  mankind.  Belonging,  as  they  do,  to 
the  two  great  families  of  speech,  the  Shemitic  and  the 
Indo-Germanic,  which  have  been  the  bearers  of  civiliza- 
tion, culture,  and  the  noblest  products  of  human  thought 
and  emotion,  they  are  themselves  the  highest  and  most 
perfect  developments  of  those  families,  presenting,  it  is 
true,  their  contrasted  features,  but  yet  combining  in  a 
higher  unity  on  the  principles  of  Pentecost,  in  order  to 
give  us  the  complete  divine  revelation.  Having  accom- 
plished this  their  highest  purpose,  they  soon  afterwards 
became  stereotyped  in  form,  or,  as  they  are  commonly 
called,  dead  languages,  so  that  henceforth  all  successive 
generations,  and  indeed  all  the  families  of  earth,  might 
resort  to  them  and  find  the  common,  divine  revelation 
in  the  same  fixed  and  Jiiialierable  forms. 

Language   is    the   product  of  the  human    mind,  as 


40  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE, 

thought  and  emotion  are  the  products  of  man's  soul ; 
and  therefore  it  depends  uj^on  the  constitution  of  that 
soul,  the  historical  experiences  of  the  family  or  race 
speaking  it,  especially  the  internal  experiences  in  culture, 
civilization,  morals,  and  religion.  The  connection  be- 
tween language  and  thought  is  not  a  loose  one,  but  an 
essential  connection.  Language  is  not  merely  a  dress 
that  thought  may  put  on  or  off  at  its  pleasure  ;  it  is  the 
body  of  which  thought  is  the  soul ;  it  is  the  flesh  and 
rounded  form  of  which  thought  is  the  life  and  energy. 
Hence  it  is  that  language  is  moulded  by  thought  and 
emotion,  by  experience  and  culture ;  it  is,  as  it  were,  the 
speaking  face  of  the  race  employing  it,  and  it  becomes 
the  historical  moimment  of  the  experience  of  that  race ; 
so  that  in  many  nations  that  have  perished,  and  whose 
early  history  is  lost  in  primeval  darkness,  their  language 
gives  us  the  key  to  their  history  and  experience  as  truly 
as  the  Parthenon  tells  us  of  the  Greek  mind,  and  the 
Pyramids  of  the  Egyptian.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  indiffer- 
ence, therefore,  as  to  the  languages  that  were  to  bear  the 
divine  revelation  ;  for  although  the  divine  revelation  was 
designed  for  all  races,  and  may  be  conveyed  in  all  the 
languages  of  earth,  yet,  inasmuch  as  it  was  delivered  in 
advancing  historical  development,  certain  particular  lan- 
guages must  be  employed  as  most  suitable  for  the  pur- 
pose, and  indeed  those  which  could  best  become  the 
fountains  for  enriching  the  various  languages  of  the  earth. 
Hence  it  is  that  we  can  confidently  claim  that  there  are 
no  languages — not  even  the   English  and  the  German, 


LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE.  41 

which  have  drunk  deepest  from  the  classic  springs  of  the 
Hebrew  and  the  Greek — that  there  are  no  languages  that 
could  so  adequately  convey  the  divine  revelation  in  its 
simplicity,  grandeur,  fulness  and  variety,  power  and  im- 
pressiveness,  as  those  selected  by  Divine  Providence  for 
the  purpose.  Hence  it  is  that  no  translation  can  ever 
take  the  place  of  the  original  Scriptures ;  for  a  transla- 
tion is,  at  the  best,  the  work  of  uninspired  men,  who, 
though  holy  and  faithful,  and  guided  by  the  Spirit  of 
God,  are  yet  unable  to  do  more  than  give  us  their  own 
interpretation  of  the  sacred  oracles.  They  must  enter 
into  the  very  spirit  and  atmosphere  of  the  original  text ; 
they  must  think  and  feel  with  the  original  authors ;  their 
hearts  must  throb  with  the  same  emotion  ;  their  minds 
must  move  in  the  same  lines  of  thinking  ;  they  must 
adapt  themselves  to  the  numerous  types  of  character 
coming  from  various  and  widely  different  periods  of  di- 
vine revelation,  in  order  to  correctly  apprehend  the 
thought  and  make  it  their  own,  and  then  reproduce  it  in 
a  foreign  tongue.  A  mere  external,  grammatical,  and 
lexicographical  translation  is  worthless.  Unless  the 
spirit  of  the  original  has  been  not  only  apprehended,  but 
conveyed,  it  is  no  translation  at  all.  Hence  it  is  requi- 
site that  all-sided  men  should  be  chosen  for  this  work, 
or  at  least  a  body  of  men  so  selected  as  to  embrace  the 
various  types  and  phases  of  human  experience  and  char- 
acter. But  even  then  the  translation  can  only  express 
the  theological,  ethical,  and  practical  conceptions  of  the 

holiest  and  most  learned  men  of  the  particular  age  ;  and 

4^ 


42  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE, 

inasmuch  as  the  divine  revelation  is  an  inspired  revela- 
tion, given  through  holy  men  who  spake  not  only  from 
their  own  time  and  for  their  own  time,  but  from  and  for 
the  timeless  Spirit,  the  eternal  ideas  for  all  time,  so  the 
advancing  generations  will  ever  need  to  understand  the 
word  of  God  better  than  their  fathers,  and  must,  if  they 
are  faithful,  continually  improve  in  their  knowledge  of  the 
original  Scriptures,  in  their  power  of  apprehending  them, 
of  digesting  them,  and  of  reproducing  them  in  speech 
and  life.  How  important,  therefore,  how  essential  it  is, 
if  the  church  is  to  maintain  a  living  connection  with  the 
sacred  Scriptures,  and  enter  ever  deeper  into  their  spirit 
and  mysterious  hidden  life,  that  it  should  encourage  a 
considerable  portion  of  its  youth  to  pursue  these  studies, 
and  at  all  events  insist  that  its  ministry,  who  are  to  train 
it  in  the  things  of  God,  should  have  not  merely  a  super- 
ficial knowledge  of  the  Bible,  such  as  any  layman  may 
readily  attain,  but  a  deep  and  thorough  acquaintance 
with  the  original  perennial  fountains  of  truth  ;  otherwise, 
as  church  history  has  already  sufficiently  shown,  these 
uninspired  versions  will  assume  the  place  of  the  original 
inspired  zvord,  and  the  interpretations  of  a  particular 
generation  will  become  the  stereotyped  dogmas  of  many 
generations,  and  the  life  of  a  Christian  people  will  be  cut 
off  from  its  only  source  of  spiritual  growth,  and  a  barren 
scholasticism,  with  its  stereotyped  dogmas,  mechanical 
institutions,  and  opera  operata,  ivill  assume  the  place  and 
importance  of  the  divine  zvord  and  living  communion 
with  God. 


LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE, 


43 


The  languages  of  the  Bible  being  the  only  adequate 
means  of  conveying  and  perpetuating  the  divine  revela- 
tion, it  is  important  that  we  should  learn  them  not  merely 
from  the  outside,  with  grammar  and  lexicon,  but  also 
from  the  inside,  from  a  proper  conception  of  the  genius 
and  life  of  these  tongues  as  employed  by  the  ancient 
saints,  and  especially  of  the  historical  genius  of  the  lan- 
guages as  the  sacred  channels  of  the  Spirit's  thought 
and  life.  For  language  is  a  living  thing,  and  has  its 
birth,  its  growth,  its  maturity,  its  decline,  and  its  death. 
Language  is  born,  not  as  a  system  of  roots  or  detached 
words,  that  gradually  come  together  by  natural  selection 
into  sentences ;  for  while  plants  may  grow  from  roots 
after  they  have  been  cut  down,  but  do  not  have  their 
birth  in  roots,  but  in  the  seed-germ  which  contains  the 
plant  in  embryo  ;  so  language,  although  it  may  be  ana- 
lyzed into  roots,  yet  was  not  born  in  roots  and  never  ex- 
isted in  roots,  but  came  into  being  as  sentences,  (Sayce, 
Principles  of  Comp.  Philology,  p.  136,  seq.,  2d  ed.,  Lon- 
don, 1875,)  as  thought  is  ever  a  sentence,  and  not  a 
word.  Then  as  the  mind  develops,  thought  is  developed 
with  its  body,  language,  and  thus  the  language  grows 
with  the  culture  of  a  people.  All  languages  that  have 
literary  documents  can  be  traced  in  their  historical  de- 
velopment. Especially  is  this  the  case  with  the  lan- 
guages of  the  Bible ;  they  have  a  long  history  back  of 
them ;  centuries  of  literary  development  were  required 
to  produce  them. 


44  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE, 

I.  THE  HEBREW  LANGUAGE. 

The  Hebrew  language  was  long  supposed  to  be  the 
original  language  of  mankind ;  but  this  view  can  no  lon- 
ger be  held  by  any  philologist,  for  the  Hebrew  language, 
as  it  appears  to  us  in  its  earliest  forms  in  the  sacred 
Scriptures,  bears  upon  its  face  the  traces  of  a  long-pre- 
vious literary  development.  (Ewald,  Gesch.  des  Volkes 
Israel,  3te  Ausg.  Gott.,  1864,  s.  'jZ,  seq.  Ewald,  Ausf. 
Lehrb.  des  Heb.  Sprache,  /te  Ausg.  Gott,  1863,  s.  23.) 
This  is  confirmed  by  comparing  it  with  the  other  lan- 
guages of  the  same  family.  Thus  the  Shemitic  family 
may  be  divided  into  four  groups :  i.  The  Southern 
group — Arabic,  Ethiopic,  etc.  2.  The  Aramaic  group — 
Syriac,  Chaldee,  etc.  3.  The  Hebrew  group — the  Phoe- 
nician, Hebrew,  etc.  4.  The  Assyrian  and  Babylonian. 
Now  these  languages  are  more  closely  related  to  one 
another  than  those  of  the  Indo-Germanic  family,  the  peo- 
ple speaking  them  having  been  confined  to  comparatively 
narrow  limits,  and  crowded  on  the  north  by  the  Indo- 
Germanic  tongues,  and  on  the  south  by  the  Turanian. 
Again,  these  languages  have,  for  the  most  part,  given  us 
a  considerable  literature ;  they  were  spoken  by  cultivated 
nations  of  the  ancient  world,  mediating  between  the  great 
centres  of  primitive  Turanian  culture — the  Euphrates 
and  the  Nile.  Everything  seems  to  indicate  that  they 
all  emigrated  from  a  common  centre  in  the  desert  on  the 
south  of  Babylonia,  (vide  Schrader,  Die  Abstammunp. 
der  Chaldiier  und  die  Ursitze  der  Semiten,  Zeitschrift  d. 


LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE.  45 

Deutsch.  M.  G.,  1873,)  the  Arabic  group  separating 
first,  next  the  Aramaic,  then  the  Hebrew,  while  the 
Babylonian  gained  ultimately  the  mastery  of  the  original 
Accadian  of  Babylonia,  and  the  Assyrian  founded  the 
great  empire  on  the  Tigris.  Now  the  book  of  Genesis 
(11  131)  represents  Abram  as  going  forth  from  this  cen- 
tral seat  of  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  going  first  northward 
into  Mesopotamia,  and  then  emigrating  to  Canaan,  just 
as  we  learn  from  other  sources  the  Canaanites  had  done 
before  him.  The  monuments  of  Ur  reveal  that  about 
this  time,  2,000  b.  c,  it  was  the  seat  of  a  great  literary 
development,  (The  Chaldean  Account  of  Genesis,  etc.,  p. 
29,  seq.  Geo.  Smith,  New  York,  1876;)  so  that  the  old 
objection  that  Abram  and  his  children  did  not  know  how 
to  read  and  write  has  been  for  ever  exploded.  The  father 
of  the  faithful,  whose  origin  was  in  that  primitive  seat  of 
culture,  Ur,  and  who  lived  as  a  chieftain  of  military 
prowess  (Gen.  14)  and  exalted  religious  and  moral  char- 
acter among  the  cultivated  nations  of  Canaan,  and  who 
was  received  at  the  court  of  Pharaoh — that  other  great 
centre  of  primitive  culture — on  friendly  terms,  could  not 
but  have,  to  some  extent  at  least,  made  himself  acquaint- 
ed with  their  literature  and  culture.  Still  further,  the 
old  and  vexed  question,  whether  Abraham  adopted  the 
language  of  the  Canaanites,  or  brought  the  Hebrew  with 
him  from  the  East,  must  now  be  regarded  as  unimpor- 
tant, for  the  ancient  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  are  nearer 
to  the  Hebrew  and  Phoenician  than  they  are  to  the  other 
Shemitic  families,  (Sayce,  Assyrian  Grammar,  p.  i,  seq. 


45  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

London,  1872;)  so  that  if  the  languages,  as  now  pre- 
sented to  us,  differ  less  than  the  Romance  languages — > 
the  daughters  of  the  Latin — in  their  earlier  stages  in  the 
time  of  Abraham,  their  difference  could  scarcely  have 
been  more  than  dialectic.  Now  the  ancient  Phoenician, 
the  nearest  akin  to  the  Hebrew,  was  the  language  of 
commerce  and  intercourse  between  the  nations,  as  the 
Aramaic,  which  took  its  place  after  the  fall  of  Tyre,  and 
the  Greek  after  the  conquest  of  Alexander.  Thus  the 
Hebrew  language,  as  a  dialect  of  the  Canaanite  and  its 
closely  related  Babylonian,  had  already  a  considerable 
historical  literary  development  prior  to  the  entrance  of 
Abram  into  the  Holy  Land.  Hence  the  old  idea  that 
Egypt  was  the  mother  of  Hebrew  civilization  and  culture 
has  been  utterly  disproved ;  for  it  is  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable facts  of  history  that  the  Hebrews  should  remain 
for  so  long  a  period  in  Egyptian  bondage,  and  yet  retain 
their  Eastern  civilization,  culture,  and  language,  so  that 
at  the  Exodus  they  shook  off  at  once  all  connection  with 
the  Egyptian  civilization  and  culture  as  utterly  alien  and 
antagonistic  to  their  own.  For  the  very  peculiarities  of 
the  Hebrew  language,  literature,  and  civilization,  are 
those  of  the  Babylonian.  The  biblical  traditions  of  the 
Creation,  of  the  Deluge,  of  the  Tower  of  Babel,  are  those 
of  the  Assyrians  and  Babylonians.  The  sacred  rest-day, 
with  the  significance  of  the  number  seven,  the  months, 
seasons,  and  years,  the  weights  and  measures,  coins — 
all  are  of  the  same  origin.  Still  further,  that  most  stri- 
king feature  of  Hebrew  poetry — the  parallelism  of  mem- 


LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE.  47 

bers — is  already  in  the  oldest  Accadian  hymns.  Ves,  the 
very  temptation  of  the  Hebrews  to  the  worship  of  Ash- 
toreth  and  Baal,  of  Chemosh  and  Moloch,  are  those  that 
have  ruined  the  other  branches  of  their  common  race. 
(Vide  Schrader,  Semitismiis  und  Babylonismus.  Jahrb. 
V.  Prot.  Theol.,  1875.)  How  shall  we  account  for  these 
things  unless  we  suppose  that  they  were  brought  with 
him  by  Abram  in  his  emigration  to  Canaan  ?  Fixing 
our  attention  upon  the  single  feature  of  the  parallelism 
of  members,  how  could  the  Hebrews  have  retained  it  as 
the  essential  feature  of  their  poetry,  if  they  had  no  poetic 
treasures  preserved  among  them,  and  the  poetic  spirit 
had  remained  undeveloped  with  them  ?  Without  ven- 
turing upon  an  opinion  with  reference  to  the  amount  of 
literature  to  be  attributed  to  these  early  times,  but  taking 
the  Pentateuch  as  it  is,  we  see  therein  a  language  admi- 
rably adapted  for  its  purpose,  the  product  of  previous 
literary  development.  Whether  Moses  wrote  the  entire 
Pentateuch  or  not,  yet  all  will  admit  a  considerable  Mo- 
saic nucleus.  This  being  true,  the  principles  of  language 
seem  to  require  either  that  the  ancient  records  have  been 
improved  by  later  editors,  or  that  there  must  have  been 
a  large  body  of  sacred  literature  to  give  the  language 
that  stable  character  that  marks  it  throughout  the  entire 
sacred  Scriptures  ;  for  while  there  is  certainly  a  develop- 
ment in  the  Hebrew  language  of  the  Bible,  and  three 
periods  may  be  readily  distinguished,  yet  the  differences 
between  the  earlier  and  the  classic  period  are  but  slight, 
the  chief  distinguishing  features  being  in  the  later  wri- 


48  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

tings  of  the  Chronicler,  of  Ecclesiastes,  Daniel,  and  the 
post-exile  prophets,  all  showing  a  decline  from  the  classic 
models  and  an  approximation  to  the  Aramaic.  Sacred 
books  give  languages  a  permanence  such  as  no  other 
literature  can  give  them.  This  is  evident  not  only  from 
the  German  Bible  of  Luther,  and  King  James'  English 
version,  which  have  kept  these  great  languages  compar- 
atively stationary,  but  also  from  the  Koran,  which  has 
kept  the  Arabic  so  fixed  to  its  classic  style  that  it  has 
taken  a  thousand  years  for  the  vulgar  Arabic  to  reach 
that  stage  of  linguistic  development  presented  in  the 
earliest  Hebrew  of  the  Bible.  Hence  we  contend  that 
unless  the  language  of  the  writings  of  Moses  has  been 
changed  by  later  editors — an  incredible  supposition — at 
least  a  considerable  portion  of  the  Pentateuch  must  be 
assigned  to  his  times.  Moses  is  certainly  the  father  of 
the  Hebrew  language  and  literature,  as  Luther  is  of  the 
German.  He  moulded  its  fundamental  types,  and  start- 
ed it  in  those  directions  that  it  has  ever  since  maintained. 
As  Abraham  had  gone  forth  from  the  culture  of  Babylo- 
nia to  enter  upon  the  pilgrim  life  of  believing  communion 
with  El  Skaddai,  so  Moses  went  forth  from  the  culture 
of  Egypt  to  become  the  representative  of  yahveh,  and 
organize  a  kingdom  of  priests,  a  holy  nation,  a  theocracy 
the  vital  principles  of  which  became  reverential  fear  and 
worship  of  the  personal  God  of  the  covenant. 

Thus  the  Hebrew  language  became,  in  its  essential 
spirit  and  genius,  a  religions  language,  the  holy  tongue 
of  the  holy  people  of  God,  and  Moses  laid  its  foundations 


LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


49 


in  a  literature  of  sacred  history,  poetry,  and  prophecy. 
The  history  of  the  books  of  Moses  is  the  fountain  of  all 
subsequent  history.  The  grand  hymn,  Exod.  15,  the 
prayer,  Psa.  90,  the  prophetic  didactic  poem,  Deut.  32, 
are  the  great  boughs  of  lyric  i^oetry  upon  which  the 
Psalter  subsequently  burst  forth  in  all  its  glory;  and  his 
prophetic  discourses  in  Deuteronomy  are  the  sources,  as 
they  give  the  key  to  all  subsequent  prophecy. 

Looking  now  at  the  language  as  religious  according 
to  its  genius,  and  considering  it  in  its  fundamental  types 
and  their  historical  development,  we  observe  the  follow- 
ing as  some  of  its  most  prominent  characteristics. 

I.  It  is  remarkably  siuiple  and  natural.  This  is  in- 
deed a  common  feature  of  the  Shemitic  family.  As 
compared  with  the  Indo-Germanic,  they  represent  an 
earlier  stage  in  the  development  of  mankind,  the  child- 
hood of  the  race.  Theirs  is  an  age  of  perception,  con- 
templation, and  observation,  not  of  conception,  reflec- 
tion, and  reasoning.  Things  are  apprehended  accord- 
ing to  their  appearance  as  phenomena,  and  not  accord- 
ing to  their  internal  character  as  nownena.  The  form, 
the  features,  the  expressions  of  things  are  seen  and 
most  nicely  distinguished,  but  not  their  inward  being; 
the  effects  are  observed,  but  these  are  not  traced  through 
a  series  of  causes,  but  only  either  to  the  immediate  cause 
or  else  by  a  leap  to  the  ultimate  cause.  Hence  the  lan- 
guage that  expresses  such  thought  is  simple  and  natural. 
We  see  this  in  its  sounds,  which  are  simple  and  mani- 
fold, disliking  diphthongs  and  compound  letters  ;  in  its 


50  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

roots  uniformly  of  three  consonants,  generally  accompa- 
nied by  a  vowel;  in  its  inflections,  mainly  by  internal 
modifications  ;  in  its  simple  arrangement  of  clauses  in 
the  sentence,  with  a  limited  number  of  conjunctions. 
Thus  the  conjunction  vav  plays  a  more  important  part  in 
the  language  than  all  conjunctions  combined,  distinguish- 
ing by  a  simple  modification  of  vocalization,  accentua- 
tion, or  position,  between  clauses  coordinate,  circumstan- 
tial, or  subordinate,  and  in  the  latter  between  those  indi- 
cating purpose  or  result.  This  is  the  most  remarkable 
feature  of  the  language,  without  a  parallel  in  any  other 
tongue.  And  so  the  poetry  is  constituted  on  the  simple 
principle  of  the  parallelism  of  members,  these  being  syn- 
thetic, antithetic,  or  progressive  ;  and  in  the  latter  case 
advancing,  like  the  waves  of  the  sea,  in  the  most  beauti- 
ful and  varied  forms.  The  only  other  principle  of  He- 
brew poetry  is  the  play  of  the  tone,  the  force  of  which 
has  not  yet  been  sufficiently  determined,  but  certainly 
had  striking  effects  in  the  living  language.  (Reuss,  Heb. 
Poesie,  Herzog.  Real.  Encyk.,  V.,  s.  607.)  Hence  it  is 
that  the  Hebrew  language  is  the  easiest  to  render  into  a 
foreign  tongue,  and  that  Hebrew  poetry  can  readily  be 
made  the  common  property  of  mankind. 

2.  We  observe  a  striking  correspondence  of  the  lan- 
guage to  the  thought.  This  rests  upon  a  radical  differ- 
ence between  the  Shemitic  and  Indo-Germanic  family  in 
their  relative  appreciation  of  the  material  and  the  form 
of  language.  (Vid.  Grill,  ilber  d.  Verhaltniss  d.  indogerm. 
u.  d.  semit.  Sprachwurzeln  in  the  Zeitschrift  f.  d.  m.  G. 


LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE.  51 

1873.)  The  form,  the  artistic  expression,  is  to  the  He- 
brew a  very  small  affair.  The  idea,  the  thought,  and 
emotion,  flow  forth  freely  and  embody  themselves  with- 
out any  external  restraint  in  the  speech.  This  is  clear 
from  the  method  of  inflection,  which  is  mostly  by  inter- 
nal changes  in  the  root,  expressing  the  passive  by  chan- 
ging the  clear  vowel  into  the  dull  vowel,  the  intensive  by 
doubling  the  second  radical,  the  pure  idea  of  the  root  by 
the  extreme  shortness  of  the  infinitive  and  the  segholate, 
the  causative  and  the  reflexive  by  lengthening  the  stem 
from  without,  and,  as  far  as  cases  and  moods  exist,  ex- 
pressing them  harmoniously  by  the  three  radical  short 
vowels. 

How  beautiful  in  form,  as  well  as  sense,  is  the  ab- 
stract plural  of  intensity  by  which  EloJilm  expresses  the 
fulness  of  the  idea  of  God  conceived  as  the  one  to  be 
revered  ;  by  which  cJiayyiin  expresses  the  fulness  of  life, 
and  which  is  employed  in  such  passages  as  Eccles.  5  : 8, 
where  the  exaltation  of  God  over  all  earthly  judges  would 
be  represented, 

"  For  high  over  high  watcheth 
The  highest  over  them." 

So  in  the  dependence  of  the  construct  relation,  and  the 
use  of  the  suffixes.  But  perhaps  this  feature  is  most 
striking  in  Hebrew  poetry  where  the  absence  of  an  ar- 
tistic form  is  most  apparent.  We  see,  with  a  general 
harmony  of  lines  and  strophes,  that  without  any  rule,  but 
with  the  utmost  freedom,  the  proportion  in  length  and 
number  is  frequently  broken  through.     And  though  the 


52  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

Hebrew  poet  uses  the  refrain,  yet  he  likes  to  modify  it, 
as  in  the  lament  of  David  over  Jonathan,  2  Sam.  i  :  19- 
27,  the  80th  Psalm,  and  the  magnificent  prophecy,  Isaiah 
40-66.  Again,  though  the  Hebrew  poet  uses  the  alpha- 
bet to  give  his  lines  or  strophes  a  sort  of  regularity  in 
order,  using  it  as  so  many  stairs  up  which  to  climb  in 
praise,  in  pleading,  in  lamentation,  and  in  advancing  in- 
struction, yet  he  by  no  means  binds  himself  to  an  equal 
number  of  lines,  or  even  measure  of  length  ;  and,  apparent- 
ly without  necessity  at  times,  breaks  through  his  alpha- 
bet itself.  Free  as  the  ocean  is  the  poet's  emotion,  rising 
like  the  waves  in  majestic  strivings,  heaving  as  an  agi- 
tated sea,  ebbing  and  flowing  like  the  tide  in  solemn  and 
measured  antithesis,  sporting  like  the  wa\'T2lets  upon  a 
sandy  beach. 

3.  The  Hebrew  language  has  a  wonderful  majesty  and 
sublimity.  This  arises  partly  from  its  original  religious 
genius,  but  chiefly  from  the  sublime  materials  of  its 
thought.  God,  the  only  true  God,  Jahveh,  the  Holy  Re- 
deemer of  his  people,  is  the  central  theme  of  the  Hebrew 
language  and  literature,  a  God  not  apart  from  nature  and 
not  involved  in  nature,  no  Pantheistic  God,  no  mere  De- 
istic  God,  but  a  God  who  enters  into  sympathetic  rela- 
tions with  his  creatures,  who  is  recognized  and  praised, 
as  well  as  ministered  unto  by  the  material  creation. 
Hence  there  is  a  realism  in  the  Hebrew  language  that 
can  nowhere  else  be  found  to  the  same  extent.  The 
Hebrew  people  were  as  realistic  as  the  Greek  were  ideal- 
istic.    Their  God  is  not  a  God  thought  out,  reasoned  out 


LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE.  53 

as  an  ultimate  cause,  or  chief  of  a  Pantheon,  but  a  per- 
sonal God,  known  by  them  in  his  association  with  them 
by  a  proper  name,  Jahveh.  Hence  the  so-called  anthropo- 
morphisms and  anthropopathisms  of  the  Old  Testament, 
so  alien  to  the  Indo-Germanic  mind  that  an  Occidental 
theology  must  explain  them  away,  from  an  incapacity  to 
enter  into  that  bold  and  sublime  realism  of  the  Hebrews. 
Thus,  again,  man  is  presented  to  us  in  all  his  naked  real- 
ity, in  his  weakness  and  sins,  in  his  depravity  and  wretch- 
edness, as  well  as  in  his  bravery  and  beauty,  his  holiness 
and  wisdom.  In  the  Hebrew  heroes  we  see  men  of  like 
passions  with  ourselves,  and  feel  that  their  experience  is 
the  key  to  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  our  life.  So  also  in 
their  conception  of  nature.  Nature  is  to  the  Hebrew 
poet  all  aglow  with  the  glory  of  God,  and  intimately  asso- 
ciated with  man  in  his  origin,  history,  and  destiny.  There 
is  no  such  thins:  as  science ;  that  was  for  the  Indo-Ger- 
manic  mind  ;  but  they  give  us  that  v/nich  science  never 
gives,  that  which  science  is  from  its  nature  unable  to 
present  us :  namely,  those  concrete  relations,  those  ex- 
pressive/t'^Z/z/ri"  of  nature  that  declare  to  man  their  Mas- 
ter's mind  and  character,  and  claim  human  sympathy  and 
protection  as  they  yearn  with  man  for  the  Messianic  fu- 
ture. Now  the  Hebrew  language  manifests  this  realism 
on  its  very  face.  Its  richness  in  synonyms  is  remarkable. 
It  is  said  that  the  Hebrew  language  has,  relatively  to  the 
English,  ten  times  as  many  roots  and  ten  times  fewer 
words,  (Grill,  in  1.  c.  ;)  and  that  while  the  Greek  language 

has  1,800  roots  to  100,000  words,  the  Hebrew  has  2,000 

5^ 


54  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

roots  to  10,000  words.  (Bottcher,  Ausf.  Lehrbiich  d. 
Heb.  Sprache,  I,  s.  8.  Leipzig,  1866.)  This  richness  in 
synonyms  is  appalling  to  the  Indo-Germanic  scholar  who 
comes  to  the  Hebrew  from  the  Latin  and  the  Greek, 
where  the  synonyms  are  more  or  less  accurately  defined. 
But  nothing  of  the  kind  has  yet  been  done  by  any  She- 
mitic  scholar,  so  far  as  I  know.  What  will  you  do  with 
a  language  that  has  fifty-five  words  for  destroy,  sixty  for 
break,  and  seventy-four  for  take?  (Girdlestone,  Synonyms 
of  the  Old  Test.,  p.  15.  London,  1871.)  It  is  exceed- 
ingly doubtful  whether  this  richness  of  synonyms  can  be 
reduced  to  a  system  and  the  terms  sharply  and  clearly 
defined ;  the  differences  are  like  those  of  the  peculiar 
gutturals  of  the  Shemitic  tongues,  so  delicate  and  subtle 
that  they  can  hardly  be  mastered  by  the  Western  tongue 
or  ear.  So  these  synonyms  can  hardly  be  apprehended 
and  conveyed  into  languages  so  poor  when  compared 
with  such  wealth. 

This  richness  of  synonym  is  connected  with  a  cor- 
responding richness  of  expression  in  the  synonymous 
clauses  that  play  such  an  important  part  in  Hebrew 
poetry,  and  indeed  are  the  reason  of  its  wonderful  rich- 
ness and  majesty  of  thought.  Thus  the  sacred  poet  and 
prophet  plays  upon  his  theme  as  upon  a  many-stringed 
instrument,  bringing  out  a  great  variety  of  tone  and  mel- 
ody, advancing  in  graceful  steppings  or  stately  march- 
ings to  the  climax,  or  dwelling  upon  the  theme  with  an 
inexhaustible  variety  of  expression  and  coloring.  The 
Hebrew  language  is  like  the  rich  and  glorious  verdure  of 


LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


55 


Lebanon,  or  as  the  lovely  face  of  the  Shunamite,  dark  as 
the  tents  of  Kedar,  yet  rich  in  color  as  the  curtains  of 
Solomon,  or  her  graceful  form,  which  is  so  rapturously 
described  as  she  discloses  its  beauties  in  the  dance  of  the 
hosts.  (Song  of  Songs  1:5;  7 :  1-7.)  It  is  true  that 
Hebrew  literature  is  not  as  extensive  as  the  Greek ;  it  is 
confined  to  history,  lyric  poetry,  and  prophecy;  but  in 
these  departments  it  presents  the  grandest  productions  of 
the  human  soul.  Its  history  gives  us  the  origin  and  des- 
tiny of  our  race,  unfolds  the  story  of  redemption,  dealing 
now  with  the  individual,  then  with  the  family  and  nation, 
and  at  times  widening  so  as  to  take  into  its  field  of  repre- 
sentation the  most  distant  nations  of  earth ;  it  is  a  his- 
tory in  which  God  is  the  great  actor,  in  which  sin  and 
holiness  are  the  chief  factors.  Its  poetry  stirs  the  heart 
of  mankind  with  hymns  and  prayers,  with  sentences  of 
wisdom  ;  and  in  the  heroic  struggles  of  a  Job,  and  the 
conquering  virtue  of  a  Shunamite,  there  is  imparted 
strength  to  the  soul  and  vigor  to  the  character  of  man 
and  woman  transcending  the  influence  of  the  godlike 
Achilles  or  the  chaste  Lucretia ;  while  the  second  half 
of  Isaiah  presents  the  sublimest  aspirations  of  man. 
Where  shall  we  find  such  images  of  beauty,  such  wealth 
of  illustration,  such  grandeur  of  delineation,  such  majes- 
tic representations  }  It  seems  as  if  the  prophet  grasped 
in  his  tremendous  soul  the  movements  of  the  ages,  and 
saw  the  very  future  mirrored  in  the  mind  of  God. 

4.  The  Hebrew  language  is  remarkable  for  its  life 
2J\^  fervor.     This  is  owing  to  the  emotional  and  hearty 


56  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

character  of  the  people.  There  is  an  artlessness,  self- 
abandonment,  and  whole-souledness  in  the  Hebrew 
tongue  ;  it  is  transparent  as  a  glass,  so  that  we  see  through 
it  as  into  the  very  souls  of  the  people.  There  is  none  of 
that  reserve,  that  cool  and  calm  deliberation,  that  self- 
consciousness,  that  characterize  the  Greek.  (Ewald, 
s.  33  ;  Bottcher,  s.  9.  Bertheau,  in  Herzog.  Real.  Ency- 
clopadie,  v.  s.  613.)  The  Hebrew  language  is  distin- 
guished by  the  strength  of  its  consonants  and  the  weak- 
ness of  its  vowels ;  so  that  the  consonants  give  the  word 
a  stability  of  form  in  which  the  vowels  have  the  greatest 
freedom  of  movement.  The  vowels  circulate  in  the 
speech  as  the  blood  of  the  language.  Hence  the  free- 
dom in  the  varying  expressions  of  the  same  root  and  the 
fervor  of  its  full-toned  forms.  And  if  we  can  trust  the 
Masoretic  system  of  accentuation  and  vocalization,  the 
inflection  of  the  language  depends  upon  the  dislike  of 
the  recurrence  of  two  vowelless  consonants,  and  hence 
the  vocal  sJieva  and  the  half-open  syllable  ;  and  on  the 
power  of  the  accent  over  the  vocalization  not  only  of  the 
accented  syllable,  but  also  of  the  entire  word,  and  hence 
the  pretonic  kdinctz.  This  gives  the  language  a  won- 
derful flexibility  and  elasticity.  In  the  Hebrew  tongue 
the  emotions  overpower  the  thoughts  and  carry  them  on 
in  the  rushing  stream  to  the  expression.  Hence  their 
literature  has  a  power  over  the  souls  of  mankind.  The 
language  is  as  expressive  of  emotion  as  the  face  of  a 
modest  and  untutored  child,  and  the  literature  is  but  the 
speaking  face  of  the  heart  of  the  Hebrew  people.     The 


LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE.  57 

Psalms  of  David  touch  a  chord  in  every  soul,  and  inter- 
pret the  experience  of  all  the  world.  The  wise  sentences 
of  Solomon  come  to  us  as  the  home-truths,  as  the  social 
and  political  maxims  that  sway  our  minds  and  direct  our 
lives.  The  prophets  present  to  us  the  objective  omnipo- 
tent truth,  which,  according  to  the  beautiful  story  of  Ze- 
rubbabel,  is  the  mightiest  of  all,  flashing  conviction  like 
the  sun  and  cutting  to  the  heart  as  by  a  sharp  two-edged 
sword.  So  with  the  history ;  it  presents  to  us  the  simple 
facts  of  the  lives  of  individuals  and  of  nations  in  the  light 
of  the  Divine  countenance,  speaking  to  our  hearts  and 
photographing  upon  us  pictures  of  real  life. 

These  are  some  of  the  most  striking  features  of  the 
Hebrew  language,  which  have  made  it  the  most  suitable 
of  all  to  give  to  mankind  the  elementary  religious  truths 
and  facts  of  divine  revelation.  The  great  body  of  the 
Bible,  four-fifths  of  the  sum  total  of  God's  word,  is  in  this 
tongue.  It  is  no  credit  to  a  Christian  people  that  the 
I^brew  language  has  no  place  at  all  in  the  most  of  our 
colleges  and  universities,  so  called ;  that  its  study  has 
been  confined,  for  the  most  part,  to  theological  semina- 
ries and  the  students  for  the  ministry.  It  is  not  strange 
that  the  Old  Testament  has  been  neglected  in  the  pul- 
pit, the  Sabbath-school,  and  the  family,  so  that  many 
minds,  even  of  the  ministry,  have  doubted  whether  it  was 
any  longer  to  be  regarded  as  the  word  of  God.  It  is  not 
strange  that  Christian  scholars,  prejudiced  by  their  train- 
ing in  the  languages  and  literature  of  Greece  and  Rome, 
should  be  unable  to  enter  into  the  spirit  and  appreciate 


58  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

the  peculiar  features  of  the  Hebrew  language  and  litera- 
ture, and  so  fail  to  understand  the  elements  of  a  divine 
revelation.  Separating  the  New  Testament  and  the 
words  and  work  of  Jesus  and  his  apostles  from  their 
foundation  and  their  historical  preparation,  they  have 
not  caught  the  true  spirit  of  the  gospel,  nor  apprehended 
it  in  its  unity  and  variety  as  the  fulfilment  of  the  law 
and  the  prophets.  But  this  is  not  all,  for  I  shall  now 
attempt  to  show  you  that  the  other  languages  of  the 
Bible,  the  Aramaic  and  the  Greek,  have  been  moulded 
and  transformed  by  the  theological  conceptions  and 
moral  ideas  that  had  been  developing  in  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures,  and  which,  having  been  ripened  under  the 
potent  influence  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  were  about  to  burst 
forth  into  bloom  and  eternal  fruitfulness  in  these  tongues 
prepared  by  Divine  Providence  for  the  purpose.  The 
Hebrew  language  is,  as  we  have  seen,  the  language  of 
religion,  and  moulded  entirely  by  religious  and  moral 
ideas  and  emotions.  The  Greek  and  the  Aramaic  are*of 
an  entirely  different  character;  they  were  not,  as  the 
Hebrew,  cradled  and  nursed,  trained  from  infancy  to 
childhood,  armed  and  equipped  in  their  heroic  youth  with 
divine  revelation,  but  they  were  moulded  outside  of  the 
realm  of  divine  revelation,  and  only  subsequently  adapt- 
ed for  the  declaration  of  sacred  truth.  And  first  this 
was  the  case  with  the  Aramaic. 


PART  II. 

THE  ARAMAIC  AND  THE  GREEK  LANGUAGES, 
AND  CONCLUSION. 


THE  ARAMAIC  LANGUAGE 

Goes  back  in  its  history  to  the  most  primitive  times. 
It  is  the  farthest  developed  of  the  Shemitic  family, 
showing  a  decline,  a  decrepitude  in  its  poverty  of  forms 
and  vocalization,  in  its  brevity  and  abruptness,  in  its 
pleonasm  and  incorporation  of  a  multitude  of  foreign 
words.  It  was  the  language  of  those  races  of  Syria  and 
Mesopotamia  that  warred  with  the  Egyptians  and  Assyr- 
ians, and  perhaps,  as  Gladstone  suggests,  took  part  in 
the  Trojan  war,  (Gladstone's  Homeric  Synchronism,  N. 
Y.*  1876,  p.  173,)  who,  according  to  Sayce,  (The  Hama- 
thite  Inscriptions,  Trans.  Society  of  Bib.  Archaeology, 
London,  1876,  p.  30,)  used  the  earliest  system  of  writing, 
and  were  the  agents  through  whom  both  the  Hebrew  and 
the  Greek  alphabets  were  conveyed  to  those  peoples.  At 
all  events  the  Aramaic  became  the  language  of  commerce 
and  intercourse  between  the  nations  during  the  Persian 
period,  taking  the  place  of  the  Phoenician,  as  it  was  in 
turn  supplanted  by  the  Greek.  The  children  of  Judah 
having  been  carried  into  captivity  and  violently  separated 
from  their  sacred  places  and  the  scenes  of  their  history, 


6o  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

gradually  acquired  this  commercial  and  common  lan- 
guagre  of  intercourse,  so  that  ere  lon^^  it  became  the  Ian- 
guage  of  the  Hebrew  people,  the  knowledge  of  the  ancient 
Hebrew  being  confined  to  the  learned  and  the  higher 
ranks  of  society.  Hence  even  in  the  books  of  Ezra  and 
Daniel,  considerable  portions  were  written  in  Aramaic. 

This  Aramaic  is  called  the  Biblical  Chaldee,  to  dis- 
tinguish it  from  the  Chaldee  of  the  Targums,  but  really 
gives  us  an  older  type  of  the  language.  The  Aramaic 
continued  to  be  the  language  of  the  Jews  during  the 
Persian,  Greek,  and  Roman  periods,  and  was  the  com- 
mon speech  of  Palestine  in  the  times  of  our  Lord, 
(Schiirer  Neutestament.  Zeitgesch.,  s.  372,  Leipzig,  1874,) 
although  it  had  long  ceased  to  be  the  language  of  com- 
merce and  intercourse,  the  Greek  having  taken  its 
place,  and  gradually  penetrated  from  the  commercial 
and  official  circles  even  to  the  lowest  ranks  of  society. 
Thus  there  was  a  mingling  of  a  Greek  population  with 
the  Shemitic  races,  not  only  in  the  Greek  colonies  of 
the  Decapolis  and  the  cities  of  the  seacoast  of  Palestine, 
but  also  in  the  great  centres  of  Tiberias,  Samaria,  and 
even  in  Jerusalem  itself.  Greek  manners  and  customs 
were,  under  the  influence  of  the  Herodians  and  the  Saddu- 
cees,  pressing  upon  the  older  Aramaic  and  Hebrew,  not 
without  the  stout  resistance  of  the  Pharisees.  The 
language  of  our  Saviour,  however,  in  which  he  delivered 
his  discourses  and  instructions,  was  undoubtedly  the 
-Aramaic,  although  we  could  hardly  deny  him  the  knowl- 
edge and  use  of  the  Greek.     For  not  only  do  the  Ara- 


LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE.  61 

maic  terms  that  he  used,  which  are  retained  at  times  by 
the  evangelists,  and  the  proper  names  of  his  disciples, 
but  also  the  very  structure  and  style  of  his  discourses, 
show  the  Aramaic  characteristics.  For  our  Saviour's 
methods  of  delivery  and  style  of  instruction  were  essential- 
ly the  same  as  those  of  the  Rabbins  of  his  time.  Hence  we 
should  not  think  it  strange,  that  from  this  Aramaic  liter- 
ature alone  we  can  bring  forward  parallels  to  the  wise 
sentences  and  moral  maxims  of  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  the  rich  and  beautiful  parables,  by  which  he 
illustrated  his  discourses,  and  the  fiery  zeal  of  his  denun- 
ciation of  hypocrisy,  together  with  the  profound  depths  of 
his  esoteric  instruction.  Our  Saviour  used  the  Aramaic 
language  and  methods,  in  order  thereby  to  reach  the 
people  of  his  times,  and  place  in  the  prepared  Aramaic 
soil  the  precious  seeds  of  heavenly  truth.  Now  it  is  the 
providential  significance  of  the  Aramaic  language  that  it 
thus  prepared  the  body  for  the  thought  of  our  Saviour. 
It  is  a  language  admirably  adapted,  by  its  simplicity,  per- 
spicuity, precision,  and  definiteness,  with  all  its  awk- 
wardness, for  the  associations  of  every-day  life.  It  is  the 
language  for  the  lawyer  and  the  scribe,  the  pedagogue 
and  the  pupil ;  indeed,  the  English  language  of  the  She- 
mitic  family.  (Volck  Herzog.  Real  Encyklopaedie,  new 
edition,  i,  603.)  Thus  the  earlier  Aramaic  of  the  Bible 
gives  us  only  official  documents,  letters,  and  decrees,  or 
else  simple  narrative.  And  as  moulded  by  the  Jewish 
people  after  the  return  from  exile,  it  was  through  the 
giving  of  the  soisc  of  the  original  Hebrew  Scriptures. 


6^  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

(Neh.  8  : 8.)  The  whole  life  of  the  Jewish  people,  subse- 
quent to  the  exile,  was  in  this  giving  the  sense  of  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures,  both  in  the  Halacha,  of  the  rabbini- 
cal schools,  and  the  Hagada  of  the  synagogue  and  the 
social  circle.  It  is  true  that  the  Halacha  was  developed 
in  the  rival  schools  of  Shamniai  and  Hillel  into  the  most 
subtle  questions  of  casuistry,  and  our  Saviour  often  se- 
verely reproved  the  Pharisaic  spirit  for  its  subtlety  and 
scholasticism  ;  yet  not  unfrequently  he  employed  their 
methods,  to  the  discomfiture  of  his  opponents.  (Weiz- 
acker,  Untersuchungen  Uber  die  ev.  Geschichte,  s.  358  seq. 
Gotha,  1864,)  as  in  Matt.  22  :  .15-46,  although  his  own 
spirit  was  rather  that  of  the  old  prophets  than  of  the 
scribes.  The  Hagada  was  developed  by  the  rabbins  into 
a  great  variety  of  forms  of  ethical  wisdom  and  legend. 
This  we  see  already  in  the  apocryphal  books  of  Wisdom, 
in  the  stories  of  Zerubbabel,  of  Judith,  of  Susanna,  and  of 
Tobith.  (Zunz,  die  Gottesdienstlichen  Vortrage,  der 
Juden,  Berlin,  1832,  s.  42  ;  s.  100  ;  s.  120  ;  Etheridge,  In- 
troduction to  Hebrew  Literature,  London,  1856,  p.  \Q2,seq}) 
This  latter  method  was  the  favorite  one  of  our  Sav- 
iour, as  calculated  for  the  common  people,  and  to  it  we 
may  attribute  the  parables,  and  the  sweet  sentences  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  which,  though  after  the  man- 
ner of  the  scribes,  (Hausrath,  Die  Zeit  Jesus,  Heidel- 
berg, 1868,  s.  90,)  have  yet  a  clearness  and  transparency  as 
the  atmosphere  of  the  Holy  Land  itself,  a  richness  and 
simplicity  as  the  scarlet  flower  of  the  fields  he  loved  so 
well,  a  calm  majesty  and  profound  mystery  as  the  great 


LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE.  63 

deep,  for  he  was  the  expositor  of  the  divine  mind,  heart, 
and  being,  to  mankind.     (John  i  :  18.) 

The  office  of  the  Aramaic  language  was  still  further 
to  mediate  between  the  old  world  and  the  new — the  He- 
brew and  the  Greek ;  for  the  Greek  language  was  the 
chosen  one  to  set  forth  the  divine  revelation  in  its  com- 
pletion. 

THE  GREEK  LANGUAGE 

Was  born  and  grew  to  full  maturity  outside  of  the  sphere 
of  the  divine  revelation,  and  yet  was  predestined,  to  use 
the  words  of  my  colleague,  (Schaff,  Hist,  of  the  Apostolic 
Church,  p.  145,  New  York,  1859,)  "as  the  most  beauti- 
ful, rich,  and  harmonious  language  ever  spoken  or  writ- 
ten" "to  form  the  pictures  of  silver  in  which  the  golden 
apple  of  the  gospel  should  be  preserved  for  all  genera- 
tions." 

For  as  Alexander  the  Great  broke  in  pieces  the  Ori- 
ental world-monarchies  that  fettered  the  kingdom  of 
God,  and  prepared  a  theatre  for  its  world-wide  expan- 
sion, so  did  the  Greek  language  and  literature  that  his 
veterans  carried  with  them  prove  more  potent  weapons 
than  their  swords  and  spears  for  transforming  the  civili- 
zation of  the  East  and  preparing  a  language  for  the  uni- 
versal gospel.  The  Greek  language  is  the  beautiful 
flower,  the  elegant  jewel,  the  most  finished  masterpiece 
of  Indo-Germanic  thought.  In  its  early  beginning  we 
see  a  number  of  dialects  spoken  by  a  brave  and  warlike 
people,  struggling  with  one  another,  as  well  as  with  ex- 


64  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

ternal  foes,  maintaining  themselves  successfully  against 
the  Oriental  and  African  civilizations,  while  at  the  same 
time  they  appropriated  those  elements  of  culture  which 
they  could  incorporate  into  their  own  original  thought 
and  life ;  a  race  of  heroes  such  as  the  earth  has  nowhere 
else  produced,  fighting  their  way  upward  into  light  and 
culture  until  they  attained  the  towering  summits  of  an 
art,  a  literature,  and  a  philosophy,  that  has  even  been 
the  admiration  and  wonder  of  mankind.  As  Pallas 
sprang  forth  in  full  heroic  stature  from  the  head  of  her 
father  Zeus,  so  Greek  literature  sprang  into  historical 
existence  in  the  matcJiless  Iliad.  Its  classic  period  was 
constituted  by  the  heroism  and  genius  of  the  Athenian 
republic,  which  worked  even  more  mightily  in  language, 
literature,  and  art,  than  in  the  fields  of  politics  and  war, 
producing  the  histories  of  Thucydides  and  Xenophon, 
the  tragedies  of  an  ^schylus  and  Sophocles,  the  philos- 
ophy of  a  Socrates  and  Plato,  the  oratory  of  a  Demos- 
thenes and  ^schines.  Looking  at  the  Greek  language 
before  it  became  the  world-language,  and  so  the  language 
of  a  divine  revelation,  we  observe  that  its  characteristic 
features  are  in  strong  contrast  with  those  of  the  Hebrew 
tongue. 

I.  The  Greek  language  is  complex  and  artistic.  As 
the  Hebrew  mind  perceives  and  contemplates,  the  Greek 
conceives  and  reflects.  Hence  the  Greek  etymology  is 
elaborate  in  its  development  of  forms  from  a  few  roots, 
in  the  declensions  and  cases  of  nouns,  in  the  conjuga- 
tions, tenses,  and  moods  of  the  verb,  giving  the  idea  a 


LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE.  65 

great  variety  of  modifications.  Hence  the  syntax  is  ex- 
ceedingly complex  in  the  varied  use  of  the  conjunctions 
and  particles,  the  intricate  arrangement  of  the  sentences 
as  they  may  be  combined  into  grand  periods,  which  re- 
quire the  closest  attention  of  a  practised  mind  to  follow 
in  their  nice  discriminations  and  adjustments  of  the 
thought.  (Curtius,  Griech.  Gesch.,  Berlin,  1868,  3d  Aufl. 
.11.  s.  19,  20.)  Hence  the  complex  and  delicate  rules  of 
prosody,  with  the  great  variety  of  metres  and  rhythms. 
The  Greek  mind  would  wrestle  with  the  external  world, 
would  search  out  and  explore  the  reason  of  things,  not 
being  satisfied  with  XXiq  pheno7neTia,  but  grasping  for  the 
noiimena.  Thus  a  rich  and  varied  literature  was  devel- 
oped, complex  in  character,  the  epos,  the  drama,  the  phi- 
losophical treatise,  and  scientific  discussion,  which  are 
purely  Greek,  and  could  have  little  place  among  the 
Hebrews.      (Donaldson,  The  New  Cratylus,  3d  ed.,  p. 

I53-) 

2.  The  Greek  language  is  characterized  by  its  atten- 
tion to  the  form  or  style  of  its  speech,  not  to  limit  the 
freedom  of  the  movement  of  thought  and  emotion,  but 
to  direct  them  in  the  channels  of  clear,  definite,  logical 
sentences,  and  beautiful,  elegant,  and  artistic  rhetorical 
figures.  The  Greek  was  a  thorough  artist ;  and  as  the 
palaces  of  his  princes,  the  temples  of  his  gods,  the  im- 
ages of  his  worship,  his  clothing  and  his  armor,  must 
be  most  perfect  in  form  and  exquisite  in  finished  decora- 
tion, so  the  language,  as  the  palace,  the  dress  of  his 
thought,  must  be  symmetrical  and  elegant.     (Curtius, 


66  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

Griech.  Gesch.,  I.,  p.  20,  21.)  Hence  there  is  no  lan- 
guage that  has  such  laws  of  euphony,  involving  changes 
in  vocalization  and  the  transposition  and  mutation  of  let- 
ters ;  for  their  words  must  be  musical,  their  clauses  harino- 
nioKS,  their  sentences  and  periods  symmetrical.  And  so 
they  are  combined  in  the  most  exquisite  taste  in  the  dia- 
logues of  the  philosophers,  the  measures  of  the  poet,  the 
stately  periods  of  the  historian  and  the  orator.  The  sen- 
tences, as  Pres.  Adams  beautifully  expresses  it,  (Charge, 
on  occasion  of  the  induction  of  Dr.  Shedd  as  Professor 
of  Bib.  Literature;  New  York,  1864,  p.  10,)  "are  intri- 
cate, complex,  involved  like  an  ivory  cabinet,  till  the  dis- 
covery of  its  nominative  gives  you  the  key  for  unlocking 
the  mechanism  and  admiring  the  ingenuity  and  beauty 
of  its  rhetoric." 

3.  The  Greek  language  is  thus  beautiful  diwd  finished. 
The  Greek  mind  was  essentially  ideal,  not  accepting  the 
external  world  as  its  own,  but  transforming  it  to  suit  its 
genius  and  its  taste.  This  was  owing  to  its  original  /m- 
manizing  genius  and  its  central  theme,  man  as  the  heivic, 
man  as  the  ideally  perfect.  (Schaff,  Apostolic  Church,  p. 
145  ;  Zezschwitz,  Profangriicitat  und  biblischer  Sprachge- 
ist.  Leipzig,  1 869,  p.  1 3.)  As  the  language  and  literature  of 
the  Hebrews  was  inspired  to  describe  "  the  righteous  acts 
of  yahveJis  dominion  in  Israel  and  the  victories  of  his  holy 
arm,"  (Judg.  5:11;  Psa.  98:1,)  and  thus  was  majestic 
and  stLblime ;  so  the  language  and  literature  of  the 
Greeks  were  inspired  to  sing  the  exploits  of  the  godlike 
Achilles,  the  crafty  Ulysses,  and  the  all-conquering  Her- 


LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE.  67 

cules  ;  to  paint  the  heroic  struggles  of  the  tribes  at  Ther 
mopylas,  Salamis,  and  Platea,  to  conceive  a  model  repub- 
lic and  an  ideal  human  world,  and  thus  was  bcaiUifiil, 
stately,  and  cJiaruiing.  Its  gods  are  idealized  virtues  and 
vices  and  powers  of  nature,  and  conceived  after  the  fash- 
ion of  heroic  men  and  women,  arranged  in  a  mythology 
which  is  a  marvel  of  taste  and  genius.  Nature  is  ideal- 
ized, and  every  plant  and  tree  and  fountain  becomes  a 
living  being.  Indeed,  everything  that  the  Greek  mind 
touched  it  clothed  with  its  own  ideals  of  beauty.  Hence 
the  drama  is  the  most  appropriate  literature  for  such  a 
people,  and  the  dialogue  the  proper  method  of  its  philos- 
ophy.    (Curtius,  Griech.  Gesch.,  III.,  s.  508.) 

4.  The  Greek  language  has  remarkable  strength  and 
vigor.  Its  stems  have  been  compressed,  vowel  and  con- 
sonant compacted  together.  Its  words  are  complete  in 
themselves,  ending  only  in  vowels  and  the  consonants  ;/, 
r,  and  s ;  they  have  a  singular  independence,  as  the 
Greek  citizen  and  warrior,  and  are  protected  from  muti- 
lation and  change.  (Curtius,  Griech.  Gesch.,  I.,  s.  18.) 
It  is  true  it  has  a  limited  number  of  roots,  yet  it  is  capa- 
ble of  developing  therefrom  an  infinite  variety  of  words, 
(Jelfs.  Greek  Gram.,  4th  ed.,  Oxford,  1864,  p.  330;)  so 
that  although  it  cannot  approach  the  wealth  of  synonym 
of  the  Hebrew,  yet  its  words  are  trained  as  the  athlete, 
and  capable  of  a  great  variety  of  movements  and  striking 
effects.  Its  syntax  is  organized  on  the  most  perfect  sys- 
tem, all  its  parts  compacted  into  a  solid  mass,  in  which 
the  individual  is  not  lost,  but  gives  his  strength  to  impart 


68  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

to  the  whole  the  zveight  and  invincible  push  of  the///«- 
lanx.  Hence  the  Greek  language  is  peculiarly  the  lan- 
guage of  oratory  that  would  sway  the  mind  and  conquer 
with  invincible  argument.  It  is  the  language  of  a  De- 
mosthenes, the  model  orator  for  the  world.  It  wrestles 
with  the  mind,  it  parries  and  thrusts,  it  conquers  as  an 
armed  host. 

Such  was  the  language  with  which  Alexander  went 
forth  to  subdue  the  world,  and  which  he  made  the  com- 
mon speech  of  the  nations  for  many  generations.  It  is 
true  that  the  Greek  was  required  to  forfeit  somewhat  of 
its  elegance  and  refinement  in  its  collision  with  so  many 
barbarous  tongues,  but  it  lost  none  of  its  essential  char- 
acteristics when  it  was  adopted  by  the  Egyptian,  the 
Syrian,  and  the  Jew.  The  Jews  were  scattered  widely 
in  the  earth,  engaged  in  commercial  pursuits  that  re- 
quired them,  above  all  others,  to  master  the  common 
speech  of  the  nations.  Hence  those  of  Europe,  Asia 
Minor,  and  Africa,  easily  adopted  the  Greek  as  their 
vernacular,  and  it  gradually  became  more  and  more  the 
language  of  Syria  and  Palestine.  This  was  furthered  by 
the  translation  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  into  the  Greek, 
at  Alexandria,  the  centre  of  the  Greek  culture  of  the 
times,  a  translation  which  shows  upon  its  face  the  diffi- 
culties of  rendering  for  the  first  time  foreign  conceptions 
into  a  strange  tongue,  (Reuss,  Hellenistisches  Idiom,  in 
Herzog,  Realencyklopadie,  V.,  s.  709,)  but  which  never- 
theless became  of  incalculable  importance  in  preparing 
the  vvay  for  the  New  Testament  writers.     The  original 


LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE.  69 

productions  of  the  Jews  of  Alexandria  and  Palestine, 
many  of  which  are  preserved  in  the  apocryphal  books  of 
the  Old  Testament,  combined  to  produce  the  same  re- 
sult. Gradually  the  Jewish  mind  was  modified  by  the 
Greek  thought  and  culture,  and  the  Greek  language  was, 
on  the  other  hand,  adapted  to  the  expression  of  Hebrew 
and  Aramaic  conceptions.  The  apostles  of  our  Lord, 
if  they  were  to  carry  on  a  work  and  exert  an  influence 
world-wide  and  enduring,  were  required,  from  the  very 
circumstances  of  the  times,  to  use  the  Greek ;  for  the 
Aramaic  would  have  had  but  a  narrow  and  ever-dimin- 
ishing influence,  even  if  their  labors  had  been  confined 
to  the  synagogues  of  the  dispersed  Jews.  Hence  we  are 
not  surprised  that,  without  an  exception,  so  far  as  we 
know,  the  New  Testament  writers  composed  their  works 
in  Greek,  yes,  even  gave  us  the  Aramaic  discourses  of 
our  Saviour  in  the  Greek  tongue.  Nor  was  this  without 
its  Providential  purpose ;  for  though  our  Saviour  deliv- 
ered his  discourses  in  Aramaic,  yet  they  were  not  taken 
down  by  the  evangelists  as  they  heard  them  in  that 
tongue,  but  were  subsequently  recalled  to  their  minds  by 
the  Holy  Spirit,  who,  in  accordance  with  the  promise  of 
our  Lord,  brought  all  things  to  their  remembrance  ;  so 
that  they  recalled  the  ideas,  rather  than  the  language, 
and  gave  the  ideas  therefore  the  Greek  embodiment ;  so 
we  have  no  translation  of  the  words  of  Jesus,  but  the 
words  of  Jesus  as  they  pass  through  the  Hellenistic  con- 
ception of  the  evangelists,  colored  by  their  minds  and 
human  characteristics,  (Winer,  New.  Test.  Gr-.m.  Thay- 


70  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

er's  edit.,  Andover,  1872,  p.  27;  Bleek's  Einleit.  in  d.  N. 
T.,  2d  Auf].,  Berlin,  1866,  s.  "jG')  for  it  was  evidently  the 
design  of  God  that  the  Saviour's  words,  as  well  as  acts 
and  his  glorious  person,  should  be  presented  to  the  world 
through  those  four  typical  evangelists,  who  appropriately 
represent  the  four  chief  phases  of  human  character  and 
experience. 

The  New  Testament  writers  used  the  common  Greek 
of  their  time,  yet  as  men  who  had  been  trained  in  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures  and  in  the  Aramaic  methods  of  ex- 
position, but  above  all  as  holy  men  who  spoke  as  they 
were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  Hence,  as  the  Greek 
language  had  now  to  perform  a  work  for  which  it  had 
providentially  been  preparing,  and  yet  one  which  it  had 
never  yet  attempted,  namely,  to  convey  the  divine  reve- 
lation to  mankind,  so  it  must  be  remoulded  and  shaped 
by  the  mind  of  the  Spirit  to  express  ideas  that  were  new 
both  to  the  Greek  and  the  Jew,  but  which  had  been  de- 
veloping in  the  languages  and  literature  of  both  nations, 
for  each  in  its  way  prepared  for  the  gospel  of  Christ. 
(Schaff,  Apostolic  Church,  p.  146.)  Hence  we  are  not 
surprised  that  the  Biblical  Greek  should  be  distinguish- 
ed not  only  from  the  classic  models,  but  also  from  the 
literary  Greek  of  the  time,  although  it  must  be  confessed 
that,  when  compared  with  the  Greek  of  the  Septuagint 
and  the  Apocrypha,  it  approximates  more  to  the  literary 
Greek  of  the  times,  being,  as  Reuss  states  it,  "not  the 
slavish  idiom  of  a  translation,  but  a  free,  language-crea- 
ting idiom,  without,  however,  denying  its  cradle."   (Reuss, 


LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE.  71 

Hellenistisches  Idiom,  in  Herzog,  V.,  s.  710  ;  Winer,  New 
Test.  Gram.,  p.  39.)  It  is  true  that  much  of  its  elegance 
and  artistic  finish  has  been  lost,  and  the  nicely-rounded 
sentences  and  elaborate  periods,  with  their  delicately- 
shaded  conceptions,  have  disappeared,  yet  its  distin- 
guishing characteristics,  especially  its  strength  and  beau- 
ty, its  perspicuity,  and  its  logical  and  rhetorical  power, 
have  been  preserved,  while  to  these  have  been  added  the 
simplicity  and  richness,  the  ardor  and  glow  of  the  Ara- 
maic style ;  but  over  and  above  all  these,  the  language 
has  been  employed  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  transformed 
and  transfigured,  yes,  glorified,  with  a  light  and  sacred- 
ness  that  the  classic  literature  has  never  possessed. 

It  is  true  that  the  writings  of  the  New  Testament  are 
not  all  on  the  same  level  of  style  and  language.  (Im- 
mer,  Hermeneutik  des  Neuen  Testaments,  Wittemberg, 
1S73,  s.  io5  f.)  The  gospels  of  Matthew  and  Mark,  and 
the  epistles  of  Peter  and  James,  together  with  the  Apoc- 
alypse, have  stronger  Aramaic  coloring,  which  disturbs 
the  Greek  lines  of  beauty,  the  Greek  form  being  over- 
powered by  the  life  and  glow  of  the  Aramaic  emotion  ; 
yet  in  the  writings  of  Luke  and  John,  but  especially  of 
Paul  and  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  the  strength  and 
excellence  of  the  Greek  unite  with  the  peculiarities  of  the 
Aramaic  and  the  Hebrew  in  striving,  under  the  potent 
influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  convey  the  new  religion 
in  the  most  adequate  and  appropriate  language  and 
style. 

Here  the  humanizing  and  idealistic  tendencies  of  the 


72  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

Greek  combine  with  the  theological  and  realistic  tenden- 
cies of  the  Hebrew  and  the  Aramaic  :  for  to  these  New 
Testament  writers  the  person  of  Christ  assumes  the 
central  and  determining  position  and  influence,  as  yah- 
vch  the  one  God  did  to  the  Old  Testament  writers. 
Christ  became  the  emperor  of  the  Scriptures,  to  use 
Luther's  expression,  and  his  person  irradiated  its  lan- 
guage and  literature  with  his  own  light  and  glory.  Thus 
when  the  mind  now  strove  to  conceive  no  longer  the 
simple  idea  of  the  one  God  yaJiveJi,  but  the  complex 
idea  of  the  person  of  Christ  and  the  Trinity  therein  in- 
volved, the  Hebrew  language  was  entirely  inadequate  ; 
and  the  Greek,  as  the  most  capable,  must  be  strained 
and  tried  to  the  utmost  to  convey  the  idea  of  the  Logos, 
who  was  in  the  beginning,  was  with  God,  and  was  God, 
and  yet  became  the  Word  i]icarnate,  the  God-?;/^;/,  the 
interpreter  in  complete  humanity  of  the  fulness  of  the 
Deity  dwelling  in  him  ;  for  notwithstanding  the  histori- 
cal preparation  for  this  conception  in  the  theophanies  of 
the  Hebrews,  the  no2ts  of  Plato,  the  logos  of  Philo,  and 
the  wisdom  of  Solomon  and  Sirach,  it  was  yet  an  entire- 
ly //^w  conception,  which,  notwithstanding  the  prepara-' 
tion  of  the  Hebrew  and  the  Greek,  the  world  could  not 
appropriate  without  the  transforming  and  enlightening 
influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  (Dorner,  Entiwickelungs- 
geschichte  der  Lehre  von  der  Person  Christi.  Stuttgart 
1845,  I -J  s.  6\\  Schaff,  in  Lange's  Com.  on  John,  N.  Y .  p. 
55.)  So  in  its  anthropology  the  apostle  Paul  combmcs 
the  Hebrew  and  Greek  conceptions  in  order  to  produce  a 


LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


73 


new  and  perfect  conception.  Taking  the  psychology  of 
the  Greek  as  a  system,  he  gave  the  central  place  to  the 
Hebrew  ruach  or  spirit,  finding,  to  use  the  words  of 
Zezschwitz,  its  "undisturbed  centralization  in  living 
union  with  the  Spirit  of  God."  (Zezschwitz,  Profangrii- 
citiit,  &c.  s.  36,  f.)  He  then  brings  out  the  strife  of 
the  cap^  or  flesh,  with  the  m'tvifi  or  spirit,  and  the  false 
position  of  the  psychical  nature  -^vxh  over  against  the 
spirit.  So  also  for  the  first  he  gives  to  the  world  the 
true  conception  of  the  conscience  awk^riaLq  as  "the  remnant 
of  the  spirit  in  the  psychical  man,"  "  the  divine  voice,"  the 
consciousness  of  which  Socrates  felt  as  the  "  summit  of 
the  knowledge  of  the  true  wisdom  by  the  Greek  spirit." 
(Zezschwitz,  s.  55-57.)  Hence  the  development  of  the 
doctrine  of  sin  with  its  technical  terms,  and  of  holiness 
with  its  new  ideas  and  language.  How  infinitely  deeper  and 
higher  than  the  Greek  are  these  conceptions  of  the  New 
Testament  language,  as  the  Person  of  Christ,  presented 
by  the  Omnipotent  Spirit  convinces  the  world  of  sin,  of 
righteousness,  and  of  judgment.  (John  16:8.)  Jesus,  as 
"  the  only-begotten  of  the  Father  full  of  grace  and  truth," 
assumes  the  place  not  only  of  the  heroic  ideal  man  of  the 
Greeks,  but  even  of  the  unapproachable  holy  yahveJi  of  th^ 
Hebrews.  Hence  the  elevation  of  the  graces  of  meekness,' 
patience,  long-suffering,  self-sacrifice,  and  the  dethrone- 
ment of  the  Greek  virtues  of  strength,  beauty,  bravery, 
manhood.  And  so  in  all  departments  of  Christian  thought, 
there  was  a  corresponding  elevation,  and  degradation 
of   terms  and  conceptions.     We  can  only  mention   re- 


74  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

generation,  atonement,  reconciliation,  justification,  sanc- 
tification,  life  and  death,  heaven  and  hell,  the  church, 
the  kingdom  of  God,  repentance,  faith.  Christian  love, 
baptism,  the  Lord's  Supper,  the  Lord's  day,  the  advent, 
the  judgment,  the  new  Jerusalem,  everlasting  glory. 
(Bleeks.  Einleitung  s.  71;  Immer  Hermeneutik,  s.  105; 
Cremer.  Bib.  theol.  Worterbuch  der  Neu-testament. 
Gracitat  and  Trench,  New  Testament  synonyms,  under 
the  respective  words.)  Truly  a  new  world  was  disclosed  by 
the  Greek  language,  and  the  literature  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, as  the  Hebrew  and  the  Aramaic,  and  the  Greek 
combined  their  energies  and  capacities  in  the  grasp  of 
the  Divine  creating  and  shaping  Spirit,  who  transformed 
the  Greek  language  and  created  a  new  and  holy  Greek 
literature,  as  the  earth  heaves  and  subsides  into  new 
forms  and  shapes  under  the  energy  of  the  great  forces 
of  its  advancing  epochs. 

The  especial  literary  development  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament is  in  the  sermon  and  the  theological  tract.  We 
trace  these  from  the  first  beginning  on  the  day  of  Pen- 
tecost through  the  discourses  of  the  Book  of  Acts,  and 
parallel  therewith  the  epistles  of  Peter  and  Paul  and 
John.  Looking  at  the  sermons  we  observe  that  they 
are  no  longer  on  the  Aramaic  model  as  are  the  dis- 
courses of  our  Lord,  but  we  see  the  Greek  orator  as  well 
as  the  Aramaic  rabbin.  So  with  the  epistles,  especially  of 
Paul,  although  he  reminds  us  of  the  Rabbinical  schools 
in  his  use  of  the  halacha  and  hagada  methods,  (Gal.  4  :22, 
seq.;  Rom.  3  :  i  seq.,  etc.,)  yet  they  exhibit  rather  the  dia- 


LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE.  75 

Icctic  methods  of  the  Greek  philosopher.  Thus  the 
Greek  orator  and  philosopher  prepared  the  language  and 
style  of  Paul  the  preacher  and  theologian  no  less  than 
the  Hebrew  prophet  and  wise  man  gave  him  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  his  wisdom  and  experience.  And 
although  the  Greek  literature  of  the  New  Testament  has 
no  Demosthenes'  "  On  the  crown,"  or  Plato's  Republic,  as 
it  has  no  Iliad  or  Prometheus  ;  yet  it  lays  the  foundation  of 
the  sermon  and  the  theological  tract — those  forms  of 
literature  which,  however  little  they  may  appeal  to  the 
aesthetic  taste,  have  yet  been  the  literary  means  of  a 
world-transforming  power  as,  from  the  pulpit  and  the 
chair,  Christian  ministers  have  stirred  the  hearts  and 
minds  of  mankind,  and  lead  the  van  of  progress  of 
the  Christian  world  —  for  the  sermon  combines  the 
prophetic  message  of  the  Hebrew,  with  the  oratorical 
force  of  the  Greek;  as  it  not  only  fires  the  heart,  but 
strives  in  the  council  chamber  of  the  intellect  and  pleads 
at  the  bar  of  the  conscience,  while  the  theological 
treatise  combines  the  sententious  wisdom  of  the  He- 
brew with  the  dialectic  philosophy  of  the  Greek,  in  order 
to  mould  and  fashion  the  souls  of  men  and  of  nations, 
by  great  vital  and  comprehensive  principles,  that  consti- 
tute the  invincible  forces  of  Christian  history,  so  that 
theology  reigns  queen  of  the  sciences  never  to  be  de- 
throned by  the  timorous  cries  of  baby  Christians,  or  the 
clamors  of  conceited  philosophers  and  scientists,  who 
suppose  that  the  discoveries  of  their  minds  are  to  over- 
throw the  verities  ol  the  mind  of  God. 


76  LANGUAGES  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

"  Where  is  the  wise  ?  Where  is  the  scribe  ?  Where 
is  the  disputer  of  this  world  ?  Hath  not  God  made 
foolish  the  wisdom  of  this  world  ?  For  after  that  in  the 
wisdom  of  God  the  world  by  wisdom  knew  not  God,  it 
pleased  God  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching  to  save  them 
that  believe.  For  the  Jews  require  a  sign,  and  the 
Greeks  seek  after  wisdom :  but  we  preach  Christ  cru- 
cified, unto  the  Jews  a  stumbling-block,  and  unto  the 
Greeks  foolishness :  but  unto  them  which  are  called, 
both  Jews  and  Greeks,  Christ,  the  power  of  God,  and 
the  wisdom  of  God."     i  Cor.  i  :  20-24. 


THE  UNITY 


The  Variety  of  the  Bible, 


EEV.  R.  S.  STOMRS,  D.  D., 

PASTOR  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  THE  PILGRIMS,  BROOKLYN,  N.  Y. 


THE   UNITY 


AND 


The  Variety  of  the  Bible, 


Mr.  President,  Friends,  and  Fellow-workers :  It  is 
a  large  and  beautiful  subject  which  we  have  before  us 
this  evening;  and  I  am  more  than  usually  sensible  of  my 
incompetence  to  treat  it  fitly,  in  the  rapidity  and  imper- 
fection of  extemporaneous  remark,  within  the  limits  of 
the  hour.  Indeed,  I  was  not  aware,  until  the  very  close 
of  last  week,  of  the  importance  and  the  prominence  of 
the  service  which  I  had  rashly  undertaken  to  perform 
here. 

I  accept  for  myself,  and  echo  with  all  my  heart,  the 
tender  and  solemn  words  of  the  prayer  just  offered,  with 
its  request  that  God  would  give  me  clearness  of  thought 
and  readiness  of  expression  in  exhibiting,  as  far  as  I  may, 
this  vast  and  attractive  theme. 

Of  course  we  cannot  fix  rules  which  Omniscience 
shall  follow  in  making  a  revelation  of  truth  to  the  world. 
We  cannot  tell  beforehand  what  methods  God  will  be 
pleased  in  his  wisdom  to  adopt  in  order  to  make  that  rev- 


So       UNITY  AND    VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

elation  most  worthy  of  his  mind,  and  most  impressive  in 
its  appeal  to  the  minds  and  hearts  of  mankind.  Edward 
Irving  says  somewhere  that  for  man  to  attempt  to  criti- 
cise or  prefigure  the  plans  of  Providence,  is  as  if  the 
little  blind  mole,  running  his  tiny  galleries  underground, 
were  to  undertake  to  interpret  the  marchings  and  coun- 
ter-marchings of  mighty  armies  overhead.  It  would  be, 
if  possible,  still  more  impossible,  more  absurd,  for  finite 
intelligences  to  say  how  God  shall  make  the  revelation  of 
himself  and  of  his  will  to  the  world  which  needs  it,  but 
which  mentally  and  morally  is  unsuited  to  receive  it. 
Yet  there  are  some  things  which  aj^pear  self-evident  con- 
cerning this,  and  which  we  may  confidently  afifirm  before- 
hand in  regard  to  such  a  revelation. 

We  may  affirm,  for  example,  with  entire  certainty, 
that  it  will  be  an  intelligible  revelation  ;  such  that  a  man 
can,  by  suitable  study,  reflection,  and  thought,  and  by 
bringing  his  own  mind  into  spiritual  sympathy  with  the 
mind  from  which  it  comes,  understand  that  which  it  de- 
clares to  him.  Otherwise  it  would  be  no  revelation  at 
all,  but  a  mere  vague  thunder  in  the  air,  communicating 
no  articulate  thought,  exciting  simple  astonishment  in 
the  hearer,  which  could  be  neither  quickening  nor  puri- 
fying to  intellect  or  to  heart. 

We  may  affirm  also,  with  equal  certainty,  that  such  a 
revelation  will  be  marked  with  holiness,  in  its  discoveries 
of  God,  and  its  requirements  of  man.  Otherwise  it  will 
not  be  consistent  either  with  his  character  from  whom 
it  comes,  or  with  the  welfare  of  the  man  to  whom  it  is 


UNITY  AND    VARIETY  OF  THE  BIB  IE.       8i 

given.  If  we  find  in  it,  therefore,  any  tolerance  of  iniq- 
uity, if  it  commands  or  if  it  allows  slander,  perjury,  ly- 
ing, lust,  then,  no  matter  by  what  extraordinary  evidence 
it  appears  to  be  attested,  we  should  know  beforehand 
that  it  cannot  be  from  Him  whose  mind  searches  evil  in 
its  roots  and  relations,  and  whose  heart  is  immutably 
pure  and  true.  Even  miracles  themselves  could  not  force 
us  to  attribute  an  impure,  selfish,  sensual  rule  of  life  to 
Him  whose  holiness  is  the  glory  and  the  guard  of  the 
intelligent  creation. 

We  may  affirm,  too,  beforehand,  that  it  will  be  in  its 
structure  a  majestic  revelation.  God  will  not  bend  and 
part  the  heavens  that  he  may  bring  to  the  world  a  story 
or  a  song.  He  will  not  send  into  the  earth,  upon  the 
minds  of  those  who  are  to  testify  for  him,  the  supreme 
power  of  his  Divine  Spirit,  that  he  may  give  a  mere  argu- 
ment or  narrative,  a  maxim  or  a  jest,  to  the  thought  of 
mankind.  It  must  be  an  intelligible  and  a  holy  revela- 
tion ;  it  must  be  also  a  majestic  revelation,  which  God 
shall  make  of  himself  and  his  thought,  whenever,  and  in 
what  special  form  soever,  it  shall  seem  best  to  his  wis- 
dom and  love  to  give  that  to  the  world.  We  cannot  be 
mistaken  in  expecting  these  as  chai-acteristics  of  any 
book  with  which  He  shall  condescend  to  teach,  guide, 
and  inspire  mankind. 

And  we  may  go  further,  and  affirm  that  it  must  be  a 
revelation  marked  by  unity  within  itself :  containing  a 
statement  of  doctrine,  continuous,  progressive  perhaps, 
but  essentially  one,  from  beginning  to  end  ;  even  as  the 


82       UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBIE. 

mind  of  God  is  one,  and  cannot  possibly  be  self-contra- 
dictory. It  will  be,  probably,  we  may  say — though  per- 
haps without  the  same  certain  assurance  with  which  we 
affirm  the  other  propositions — a  revelation  manifold  in 
form,  made  through  a  great  variety  of  instruments,  since 
this  corresponds  as  well  with  the  needs  of  man  as  with 
the  eternal  opulence  of  the  Divine  mind. — In  the  con- 
struction of  the  planefGod  gives  to  us  not  merely  the 
soil  on  the  surface,  or  the  stone  beneath  it,  or  the  gold 
or  the  silver  hidden  in  their  veins,  or  the  wood  of  the 
forest,  or  the  grasses  and  flowers ;  he  gives  them  all. 
He  gives  not  merely  the  air  enveloping  the  earth,  but 
the  light  shining  through  it,  and  the  lightnings  which 
pierce  it,  and  the  waters  which  rise  as  mists  and  roll  as 
rivers.  He  braids  the  light  itself,  in  its  apparent  golden 
simplicity,  of  a  strand  of  colors,  woven  so  intimately  to- 
gether that  the  separate  hues  are  lost  in  the  beauty  of 
the  perfect  beam.  Everywhere  his  mind  reveals  itself 
in  his  works  in  an  abounding  variety  of  means  and  forces. 
We  shall  expect  it  so  to  reveal  itself  in  any  revelation 
which  he  makes  of  his  truth.  All  the  more  we  shall  ex- 
pect it  because  by  such  ever-changing  variety  of  instru- 
ment and  of  method  he  will  be  able  to  accomplish  most 
perfectly,  so  far  as  we  can  conjecture  or  foresee,  his  work 
upon  the  minds  of  those  whom  he  addresses.  Not  a  mon- 
otone, but  a  harmony,  in  which  different  but  agreeing 
sounds  conspire,  is  that  which  the  soul  of  man  craves 
and  answers. 

Therefore  we  anticipate  unity  of  truth  in  any  revela- 


UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIB  IE.      S3 

tion  which  God  shall  make,  with  variety  of  method  and 
manifold  instruments.  If  we  do  not  find  these  charac- 
teristics in  the  word  which  purports  to  be  his,  we  shall 
surely  be  surprised.  If  we  do  find  them,  they  will  cer- 
tainly seem  harmonious  with  his  mind,  and  with  his  works 
as  we  elsewhere  explore  these.  And  if  we  find  them  ap- 
pearing under  circumstances  which  in  themselves  would 
seem  unfavorable  to  their  presence,  they  will  excite  a 
strong-  presumption,  they  will  fairly  justify  it,  that  the 
word  is  from  God.  Then,  if  they  conspire  with  other 
evidences  of  the  same  sublime  and  amazing  proposition, 
they  will  help  to  make  that  certain  to  us  ;  so  certain,  that 
every  argument  against  it  becomes  ineffectual,  and  shiv- 
ers its  force  when  it  strikes  the  strength  of  our  convic- 
tion. The  evidence  of  God's  handiwork  in  the  Bible, 
derived  from  its  own  character  and  structure,  will  be  to 
us  complete,  and  supremely  inspiring. 

Let  us  look,  then,  at  the  Bible  before  us  this  evening, 
and  ask  ourselves  whether  it  clearly  presents  these  two 
marks  which  I  have  last  specified  as  proper  marks  of  its 
origin  in  God's  mind :  namely,  Unity  of  doctrine,  with 
Variety  in  method,  and  a  divine  Manifoldness  in  the  in- 
struments employed. 

First,  consider  it  in  regard  to  its  Unity. 

At  first  sight,  certainly,  the  Bible  appears  to  us  as 
little  likely  to  possess  a'  true  and  positive  interior  unity 
as  any  book  which  exists  in  the  world.  We  have  in  it 
sixty  and  more  separate  pamphlets,  some  of  them  longer 
and  some  shorter,  written  by  nearly  forty  different  per- 


84      UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  lUBIE. 

sons,  in  widely  different  stages  of  civilization  and  periods 
of  time  ;  some  of  them  separated  from  each  other  by  as 
long  an  interval  as  that  which  separates  us  to-night  from 
the  day  of  the  Druids.  We  have  these  pamj^hlets  writ- 
ten in  three  different  languages,  in  different  lands,  among 
hostile  peoples,  and  comprising  the  greatest  possible  dif- 
ferences of  literary  style,  and  of  general  or  special  intel- 
lectual culture.  These  pamphlets,  stitched  together  by 
the  hand  of  the  binder,  appear  at  first  sight  to  possess  no 
possible  unity  whatever,  except  that  which  is  purely  me- 
chanical, given  them  by  the  workman  who  has  put  them 
into  the  same  collection.  They  seem  as  diverse  as  any 
books  carelessly  intermingled  on  library-shelves. 

Yet,  when  we  examine  them,  we  are  impressed  by 
the  positive  oneness  of  doctrine  which  is  found  perva- 
ding them,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  and  really 
manifest  in  every  part. 

It  is  a  vast  unity,  of  course  ;  as  it  must  be  to  corre- 
spond with  the  mind  of  God.  It  is  the  unity  of  a  cathe- 
dral, not  of  a  hut ;  of  an  immense  mechanism,  not  of  a 
billet  of  wood,  or  of  the  walking-stick  which  one  carries 
in  his  hand  ;  the  unity  of  a  great  book,  crowded  with 
immense  thoughts  and  precepts,  not  that  of  a  song  or 
a  particular  argument.  So,  too,  it  is  an  organic  and  a 
progressive  unity,  not  to  be  wholly  searched  out  or 
comprehended  until  we  have  finished  the  entire  volume 
through  which  we  have  traced  it. 

And  yet  how  positive  a  unity  it  is  !  recognized  by  the 
finest,  the  most  careful,  and  most  judicious  of  the  minds 


UNITY  AND    VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE.      85 

of  the  world  which  have  given  themselves  to  the  study 
of  the  Scriptures;  recognized  by  ourselves,  and  not  suc- 
cessfully opposed,  to  any  one  who  has  once  discerned  it, 
by  any  argument  of  any  skeptic.  The  ingenious  un- 
believer may  find,  or  try  to  find,  some  apparent  discrep- 
ancies between  Paul's  doctrine  of  faith  and  James'  doc- 
trine of  works ;  between  the  narrative  given  by  John  and 
the  narratives  given  by  the  earlier  evangelists.  But  even 
these  apparent  and  wholly  superficial  discrepancies  turn 
out,  when  examined,  to  be  mere  hooks  wherewith  to  hold 
the  attention  of  the  reader  more  closely  to  the  books  in 
which  they  occur;  so  that  study  and  examination,  more 
searching  and  more  critical,  may  be  given  to  these  books, 
and  so  that  the  ultimate  harmony  between  them  may  be 
made  more  plainly  to  appear.  There  is  no  line  of  con- 
flict, which  the  most  ingenious  skeptic  has  discovered, 
between  prophet  and  psalmist,  between  evangelist  and 
lawgiver,  between  apostle  and  evangelist — no  line  of 
cleavage,  even,  where  unity  is  broken,  and  where  a  different 
and  a  divergent  doctrine  comes  in  to  succeed  that  which 
had  been  announced.  We  trace  but  one  doctrine,  as  I 
have  said,  always  onward  from  the  beginning  to  the 
transcendent  end.  Observe  how  clear  its  outlines  are — 
as  the  outline  of  a  coast  towering  above  the  waves  at  its 
foot,  or  as  that  of  a  range  of  mountains  on  the  continent ! 
The  book  begins  with  the  instant  and  clear  revelation 
of  God :  in  his  oneness,  his  personality,  his  holiness  of 
character;  in  his  infinitude  of  power,  wisdom,  dominion  ; 
in  his  eternity,  of  underived  and  sovereign  existence.     It 


86       UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 

shows  him  as  Creator,  and  shows  all  things  dependent 
for  form  and  force  on  his  supreme  omnific  will.  It  shows 
further  his  moral  government,  exercised  constantly  over 
men ;  with  its  law  of  perfect  holiness ;  with  its  penalties 
and  its  promises,  each  appropriate  to  the  majesty  and 
purity  of  the  law  which  is  to  be  enforced,  and  in  which 
is  the  reflection  of  his  character,  as  well  as  the  utterance 
of  his  will  to  mankind.  Then,  it  declares  man's  revolt 
against  God,  under  the  power  and  in  the  fierce  habit  of 
sin  ;  his  spiritual  alienation  from  this  holy  intelligence 
from  whom  his  moral  being  comes,  and  by  whom  this 
government  is  exercised  over  him.  It  gives  illustration 
of  this  rebellion,  this  central  alienation  of  the  human 
will  from  God's  will ;  not  merely  in  flagrant,  private 
offences,  but  in  great  public  procedures  of  iniquity ;  in 
the  devastation  of  territories,  the  subjugation  of  nations, 
the  bloody  destructions  of  public  hope,  the  terrific  idola- 
tries overspreading  the  earth  with  their  licentious  and 
ribald  rites. 

In  contrast  with  these,  it  reveals  God's  purpose  to 
form  a  spiritual  kingdom  in  the  world,  submissive  to  his 
government,  obedient  to  his  law,  and  to  gather  the  mem- 
bers and  the  citizens  of  this  kingdom  out  of  all  countries 
and  peoples  of  the  earth — a  conception  that  was  not  pos- 
sible to  either  Greek  or  Egyptian,  and  that  certainly  was 
not  more  possible  to  the  Jew,  except  as  he  was  enlight- 
ened concerning  it  by  that  Divine  mind  which  was  opera- 
ting upon  him  through  its  ministers  and  messages.  It 
reveals  at  length  the  Head  of  this  kingdom,  personal  and 


UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE.       8} 

transcendent,  unique  and  supreme  in  both  character  and 
power.  At  first,  foreshadowed  from  the  distance  and 
darkness  of  remote  ages,  he  is  more  and  more  distinctly 
brought  to  view,  through  continually  increasing  radiance 
of  prophecy;  through  the  voices  of  psalmists,  through 
the  solemn  and  significant  ritual  of  the  temple,  through 
the  office  of  the  priesthood,  through  the  royal  majesty 
and  supremacy  of  kings.  More  and  more  definite  become 
the  prophecies  concerning  him.  First,  he  is  the  seed  of 
the  woman  ;  then  he  is  of  the  seed  of  Abraham  ;  then  he 
is  the  descendant  of  Jacob ;  then  he  is  of  the  tribe  of 
Judah  ;  then  he  is  the  son  of  David  ;  until  prophecy 
begins  to  focus  itself  at  last  upon  the  very  time  when  he 
shall  appear,  as  in  Daniel,  upon  the  very  place  where  he 
is  to  appear,  as  in  Micah,  upon  the  very  office  and  char- 
acter which  he  is  to  fulfil  and  to  exhibit,  as  in  Isaiah,  in 
those  words  of  prophecy  which  have  this  evening  been 
read  in  our  hearing ;  till  the  Old  Testament  closes,  with 
the  latest  voice  of  its  prophecy,  through  Malachi,  predict- 
ting  the  rising  of  this  Sun  of  Righteousness,  predicting 
the  sudden  coming  of  this  Lord,  preceded  by  the  prophet 
who  is  to  prepare  the  way  before  him.  The  long  series 
of  prophecies  closes  here :  and  we  are  left,  looking  on  to 
the  histories — if  such  there  shall  be — in  which  these 
predictions  shall  be  fulfilled. 

Then  comes  a  gap  of  time,  but  not  an  interruption  in 
the  sequence  of  thought,  extending  over  four  hundred 
years,  and  the  New  Testament  takes  up  its  office  of 
divine  instruction.     It  presents  to  us  this  king,  who  has 


88       UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 

been  foreshadowed  from  the  beginning  of  human  history, 
in  a  constantly  brightening  clearness  of  prediction.  He 
now  comes  into  the  world,  welcomed  by  the  angelic  song, 
yet  coming  as  a  babe  in  Bethlehem ;  growing  then  into 
maturity;  accomplishing  then  his  works  of  wonder, 
scattering  miracles  around  his  path,  speaking  divinest 
thoughts  to  men  in  human  utterance,  expressing  before 
them  the  absolute  beauty  of  love  in  life,  fulfilling  at  last 
his  office  of  priest  through  his  sacrifice  of  himself,  then 
arising  froni  the  dead,  and  ascending  into  heaven,  king 
of  the  saints,  predestined  and  glorious  king  of  the  world. 

It  shows  the  Spirit  who  comes  afterward  to  represent 
this  king  in  the  world,  and  to  testify  of  him  through  all 
ages.  It  conveys  to  us  the  instructions  of  the  apostles, 
inspired  by  that  Spirit  to  testify  of  Christ ;  instructions 
in  truth,  and  in  practical  duty,  which  are  to  continue  the 
law  of  the  members  of  this  spiritual  kingdom,  while  they 
and  it  continue  to  exist.  And  finally  it  gives  us  the 
prophetic  vision  of  the  amazing  closing  book,  the  book  of 
the  Revelation,  in  which  is  shown  the  consummation  of 
this  kingdom,  with  the  crash  of  conflict  in  air  and  earth, 
the  tumultuous  collisions  and  overthrow  of  nations, 
through  which  it  marches  to  its  ultimate  assured  univer- 
sality in  the  world. 

This  is  the  book.  All  these  separate  writings,  as  I 
said,  from  different  persons,  lands,  ages,  are  gathered  in 
the  compass  of  this  one  volume;  and  when  examined 
they  are  found  to  be  pervaded,  from  first  to  last,  by  this 
extraordinary  unity  of  doctrine.     Law  and  story,  prophecy 


UNITY  AND    VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE.      Sg 

and  psalm,  point  forward  to  and  interlink  with  the  narra- 
tive and  argument  of  the  later  Testament.  The  last 
verse  of  the  Bible,  "The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
be  with  you  all,"  and  the  first  verse  of  the  Bible,  "  In  the 
beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth,"  are 
just  points  in  the  perimeter  of  the  golden  ring  within 
which  all  the  collected  contents  of  this  volume  are  com- 
prised. It  is  one  in  its  law,  one  in  its  doctrine,  as  God 
is  one.  And  you  cannot  parallel  that  phenomenon  in 
any  literature  of  any  people.  Gather  up  so  many  wri- 
tings as  are  here,  from  so  many  authors,  disconnected  by 
such  vast  intervals  of  time,  such  differences  of  language, 
such  contrarieties  of  civilization,  and  put  them  together 
into  a  volume,  and  you  have  a  collection  of  teachings 
discordant,  divergent,  and  heterogeneous.  Here  the 
unity  of  the  teaching  shows  that  it  came,  in  the  final 
analysis,  from  a  single  mind.  Why,  even  the  Oratorio 
requires  the  presence  of  one  supreme  and  regulating  mind, 
so  that  harp  and  viol,  flute  and  trumpet,  the  echoing 
drum  and  the  "terrible  trombone,"  may  all  conspire  in 
the  perfect  ultimate  musical  harmony.  Here  the  differ- 
ent writers — whether  consciously  or  not — were  certainly 
under  the  superintendence  of  one  supreme  mind,  invisi- 
ibly  operating  on  each,  and  in  him,  bringing  them  into  a 
spiritual  accord  which  they  themselves  may  not  have 
anticipated,  and  could  scarcely  understand:  in  its  final 
result  bringing  from  them  all  that  great  harmonious  voice 
of  the  Scripture,  which  is  at  length  to  fill  the  world. 
The  unity  of  the  Scriptures  is  as  evident  as  is  the 

8^ 


90 


UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


unity  of  the  planet.  As  I  said,  it  is  not  the  unity  of  a 
garden,  but  that  of  a  continent.  It  is  as  the  unity  of  the 
globe  itself,  with  all  these  various  and  seemingly  contra- 
dictory elements  compacted  into  its  enduring  organic 
oneness.  And  when  I  believe  that  man  has  shaped  the 
planet  which  we  live  on,  I  may  believe  that  man  unaided 
has  shaped  the  Bible,  and  wrought  into  unity  its  many 
complex  and  separated  parts. 

But  then  we  are  to  go  still  further,  and  observe  the 
variety  which  constantly  appears  in  connection  with, 
and  as  tributary  to,  this  majestic,  astonishing,  and  unpar- 
alleled unity. 

Observe  at  the  outset  the  difficulties  in  the  face  of 
which  such  variety  is  secured ;  difficulties  of  language, 
which  must  be  overcome;  difficulties  in  the  minds  of 
the  writers  of  the  Book.  The  Hebrew  language  is  no- 
ble and  energetic,  but  it  is  rugged,  rigid,  and  narrow,  not 
fitted  apparently  for  numerous  distinct  and  delicate  vari- 
eties of  literary  form.  The  Greek  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  a  distinct  and  noble  coordinate  dialect  of  the 
incomparable  Greek  language,  but  it  lacks  the  Ionic 
grace,  the  Attic  purity;  it  is  not  so  transparent  and 
musical  a  medium  of  thought  as  is  the  language  in  which 
Plato  wrote,  or  in  which  Homer  sang.  Remember,  too, 
that  the  men  who  wrote,  in  these  languages,  the  stories 
and  the  letters  which  we  have  in  the  Scriptures,  were 
not  for  the  most  part  highly  educated  men.  They  were 
not  cosmopolitan  in  training  or  culture.  As  a  general 
thing,  especially  in  the  Old  Testament  times,  they  were 


UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIB  IE.      91 

men  who  dwelt  apart  from  conversation  with  the  world 
outside  of  Judea,  who  knew  nothing  of  its  literature,  who 
had  not  been  trained  to  variety,  vivacity,  flexibility  of 
mind,  by  its  schools  or  its  commerce,  and  who  would 
seem  as  unapt  as  any  series  of  men  to  be  found  upon 
the  earth  to  adopt  from  others  or  produce  for  themselves 
any  great  variety  of  literary  form. 

But,  at  the  same  time,  observe  how  immense  and  in- 
cessant that  variety  is  ! 

What  form  of  literature  is  most  attractive,  most  in- 
structive, to  the  larger  part  of  mankind  ?  Undoubtedly 
we  should  say,  Narrative — narrative  in  the  form  of  his- 
tory, tracing  great  public  procedures,  or  narrative  in  the 
form  of  personal  biography,  giving  portraits  of  character, 
outlining  the  striking,  tragic,  or  fortunate  events  which 
have  occurred  in  the  career  and  experience  of  persons. 
Such  narrative,  either  in  the  more  general  form  of  his- 
tory, or  in  the  more  vivid  form  of  biography,  is  that 
which  first  and  most  naturally  attracts  the  attention  of 
men,  and  interests  their  minds.  Then  Poetry;  especially 
as  that  poetry  is  simple  and  natural,  and  is  not  artificial 
or  elaborate  in  its  form.  It  will  then  commend  itself  to 
the  mind  of  the  child.  It  will  be  sung  in  the  nursery,  on 
the  street,  in  the  fields.  Those  far  out  on  the  sea  will 
recall  it ;  those  travelling  by  the  wayside  will  find  it  still 
haunting  the  memory,  and  stirring  the  heart.  To  the 
man  and  the  woman,  of  a  sensitive  nature,  it  will  be 
equally  dear.  The  most  mature  will  love  it  like  the  child. 
It  will  prolong  youth  in  the  heart  of  the  aged. 


92        UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

Then,  Law  impresses  men — the  authoritative  expres- 
sion of  moral  truth  and  moral  duty,  commending  itself 
to  the  general  conscience,  grappling  that  conscience, 
calling  out  responses  from  the  moral  sensibility  which 
is  inherent,  indestructible,  in  all  men.  Then,  Proverbs ; 
maxims  of  duty,  maxims  of  prudence,  which  are  so  brief 
that  the  memory  holds  them  without  an  effort;  which 
we  carry  with  us  wherever  we  go,  yet  out  of  which,  as 
we  reflect  upon  them,  come  ever  larger  and  more  lumin- 
ous lessons,  of  practical  duty,  and  of  beauty  in  character. 
Then,  further  on  in  the  series,  perhaps,  fictitious  litera- 
ture has  its  place ;  presenting  truth  under  the  guise  of 
incidents  which  may  not  actually  have  occurred,  but 
which  are  entirely  probable  in  themselves,  and  which 
might  reasonably  have  been  expected  to  occur  in  the 
circumstances  described  in  the  allegory  or  the  parable. 

These  are  some  of  the  species  of  literature  with 
which  we  are  familiar,  and  by  which  we  see  that  men 
are  impressed;  and  to  them  may  be  added  argumenta- 
tive discussion,  the  clear  dialectical  exhibition  of  truth, 
with  reasons  that  convince  men,  and  an  eloquence  that 
persuades  them.  All  these  are  important  literary  forrns 
for  conveying  thought  from  one  mind  to  others ;  and 
while  we  might  not  look  to  find  them  in  untrained  He- 
brews, we  may  see  how  useful  and  desirable  they  would 
be  in  any  revelation  made  to  the  world  by  God  its 
author.  We  shall  not  expect  arithmetical  calculations 
in  such  a  revelation ;  we  shall  not  expect  the  minute 
exactness  and  the  severe  finish  of  scientific  statement ; 


UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBIE. 


93 


nor  any  other  of  those  special  forms  of  literary  work- 
manship which  are  not  intimately  and  naturally  associa- 
ted with  the  utterance  of  moral  and  spiritual  truth.  But 
whatever  may  be  thus  associated,  we  have  perhaps  a 
right  to  expect,  certainly  to  desire,  in  a  revelation  which 
comes,  or  which  at  least  purports  to  come  to  us,  from 
God.  We  may  anticipate  beforehand  that  he  will  not 
put  a  degrading  discredit  upon  any  form  of  literary 
accomplishment  which  is  natural  to  the  mind,  whose 
powers  he  has  designed  and  ordained.  Wq  may  expect 
that  he  will  touch  the  soul  in  man  by  every  force  that 
is  apt  for  the  purpose,  when  he  seeks  to  instruct,  to 
exalt,  to  renew  it. 

Take  up  then  the  constitution  of  the  Bible,  and  care- 
fully observe  it !  At  least  three-fourths  of  it  are  narra- 
tive, that  is  the  fact  which  strikes  us  first;  narrative  in 
the  form  of  a  general  historical  story,  which  tells  of  the 
public  transactions  of  nations,  of  the  intrigues,  councils, 
and  wars  of  princes,  the  devastation  of  countries,  the 
establishment,  the  enlargement,  or  the  overthrow  of  em- 
pires, the  rising  of  powers  against  each  other,  their 
alliances,  their  conflicts,  their  commercial  interactions, 
with  the  results  which  followed  from  all  to  the  kingdom 
of  God ;  or  narrative  in  the  form  of  personal  portraiture, 
recording  events,  depicting  characters,  of  which  and  of 
whom  we  should  know  nothing  except  from  it.  In  this 
regard,  this  Bible  of  ours  becomes  a  mirror  of  human 
life,  the  value  of  which  we  cannot  overstate,  the  perfec- 
tion of  which  is  utterly  unique.     What  scores  and  hun- 


94       UNITY  AND    VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

dreds  of  persons  there  are,  brought  to  Hght  by  it,  in  the 
most  various  circumstances  possible,  in  the  most  various 
exhibitions  of  character,  who  become  in  their  names, 
persons,  figures,  as  famihar  to  us  as  if  we  had  walked 
and  talked  with  them  freely  in  our  most  impressible 
years !  Abraham,  Jacob,  Esau,  Joseph,  Moses  and 
Aaron,  Joshua  and  Samuel,  Deborah  and  Ruth,  David 
and  Solomon,  Elijah  and  his  more  gentle  successor, 
Ahab  and  his  superb  and  fierce  Phenician  queen  :  what 
multitudes  there  are !  We  cannot  count  them.  A  fig- 
ure stands  out  from  the  dimness  of  the  past,  only  for  r^n 
instant ;  but  there  it  stands  before  us  for  ever  !  It  is  not 
painted,  as  a  portrait.  It  is  photographed,  on  a  plate  from 
which  the  impression  can  never  be  discharged,  by  the 
smiting  on  it  of  a  radiance  from  on  high.  One's  casual 
words,  as  of  Isaac  or  Nehemiah,  spoken  upon  the  im- 
pulse of  a  moment,  are  eternized  in  the  record  ;  they  will 
continue  to  be  repeated  while  the  planet  exists.  An 
eloquent  writer  has  aptly  said  that  the  Scriptures  are 
full  of  life-like  portraits  which  are  "  like  intaglios — mas- 
terpieces of  artistic  skill,  on  a  field  of  microscopic  dimen- 
sions." So  the  truth  is  incarnated.  So  the  law  is  illus- 
trated, shown  in  the  punishment  which  it  inflicts,  if  not 
in  the  fulfilment  of  its  rules.  And  so,  to  all  persons,  the 
Bible  has  a  constant  attraction,  by  reason  of  the  narra- 
tive which  is  in  it  so  amply,  of  this  personal  portraiture 
in  which  it  so  continually  abounds. 

Observe  how  utterly  fearless  it  is  !     It  puts  its  inci- 
dental historical  narratives  by  the  side  of  ancient  records, 


UNITY  AND    VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBIE.      95 

wherever  these  are  found,  on  brick  cylinders,  graven  in 
rocks,  traced  upon  the  parchments,  carved  upon  obelisks, 
built  into  imperial  structures ;  and  it  challenges  compari- 
son !  No  matter  how  other  records  have  come  to  us,  the 
Scripture  puts  its  record  beside  them,  asserts  this  true, 
and  waits  for  centuries  for  its  vindication.  The  ancient 
historians  tell  us,  for  example,  that  the  king  of  Babylon, 
when  that  city  was  taken  and  destroyed  by  the  Persians, 
was  not  Belshazzar,  but  Nabonadius,  or  Labynetus,  as  the 
names  are  given  differently  in  different  languages  ;  that  he 
was  not  captured  in  the  city,  or  killed,  but  that  he  escaped 
from  it ;  that  he  fought  a  battle,  after  the  capture,  outside 
of  the  city ;  that  he  was  defeated,  and  was  then  taken 
prisoner;  that  he  was  made  satrap  under  the  conqueror; 
that  he  lived  for  years  afterwards,  unmolested,  lived  in 
abundance,  and  died  in  peace.  Berosus  and  Abydenus 
agree  in  most  of  this ;  and  history  laughs  at  the  story  as 
told  in  the  book  of  Daniel.  It  is  an  unhistoric  legend, 
idle,  worthless,  because  contrary  to  the  facts.  The  book 
of  Daniel  puts  forward  its  record,  and  patiently  waits. 
Twenty  years  ago,  there  were  dug  up  the  cylinders  from 
the  remains  of  the  ancient  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  from  the 
mounds  which  mark  the  almost  forgotten  site  of  that 
renowned  city  of  the  East,  which  explain  at  a  glance  the 
seeming  inconsistency.  They  show  that  Belshazzar  was 
the  son  of  Nabonadius,  and  the  Regent  under  him  ;  that 
Daniel's  record  is  therefore  as  true  as  was  that  probably 
of  Herodotus  or  Berosus.  They  were  simply  writing  of 
different  persons. 


96       UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

So  the  Scripture  fearlessly  challenges  historians,  and 
puts  its  records  alongside  of  theirs — a  characteristic 
which  belongs  to  it  only  among  the  sacred  books  of  the 
world.  There  is  no  other  which  treats  so  fearlessly  the 
events  of  the  past,  and  which  faces  such  imminent  con- 
tinual risk  of  being  demonstrated  as  untrue,  if  that  is 
possible.  It  tells  its  story,  amid  whatever  din  of  con- 
tradictions, and  waits  to  be  accepted,  with  a  divine  cour- 
age, imperturbable  as  God. 

But  of  course  the  Bible  is  not  narrative  only.  Re- 
member the  marvellous  poetry  of  it,  at  which  all  the  world 
wonders  :  so  majestic,  so  pathetic,  in  contents  so  various, 
in  its  mass  so  vast,  in  its  spiritual  beauty  so  unequalled  ! 
It  is  poetry  unshackled  by  the  fetters  of  rhyme,  where 
the  image  becomes  instinct  with  the  spirit  of  song,  where 
the  thoughts  chime  as  words  cannot.  It  sings  itself,  there- 
fore, through  the  mind  alike  of  child  and  man.  It  utters 
itself  in  hymns  and  psalms,  and  spiritual  songs,  to  which 
it  has  given  its  impulse  and  meaning,  in  all  languages  of 
the  world.  It  becomes  the  source,  and  constant  inspira- 
tion, of  the  great  historical  liturgies  of  the  church,  of 
which  it  has  been  computed  that  two-thirds  are  drawn 
directly  from  the  sacred  volume !  It  quickens  the  fancy, 
stirs  the  imagination,  soothes,  solaces,  or  animates  the 
heart ;  and  though  not  forming  so  large  a  part,  it  forms 
as  important  and  as  memorable  a  part,  in  the  structure  of 
the  Bible ;  it  contributes  as  much  to  its  power  and  spir- 
itual impression,  as  do  narratives  and  history. 

Then  Law  addresses  men,  with  its  precise  authorita- 


UNITY  AND    VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE.       97 

tive  instruction,  its  disclosures  of  duty,  its  penalties  and 
its  promises.  It  is  inscribed  on  these  pages  in  lines 
almost  as  fiery  as  if  it  were  written  in  lightnings  on  the 
sky.  It  becomes  almost  as  impressive,  in  its  divine 
authorization,  as  if  God's  signature,  traced  in  lightnings, 
were  blazing  in  the  heaven,  beneath  vast  visible  lines  of 
flame.  Then  proverbs  come,  such  multitudes  of  them, 
familiar  to  the  thought  of  the  educated  world,  wherever 
the  Bible  has  been  read,  each  one  containing  the  choice 
treasures  of  practical  wisdom.  Argumentative  discus- 
sions are  not  wanting,  like  those  of  Paul,  which  the 
most  alert  and  studious  mind,  the  most  disciplined  intel- 
ligence, has  to  bring  its  utmost  power  to  examine,  that 
it  may  understand  their  invincible  force,  that  it  may 
develop  their  fair  conclusions  ;  that  it  may  brace  and 
invigorate  itself  by  contact  with  the  mind  which  has  ut- 
tered its  thought  in  this  majestic  sweep  of  argument. 
Great  luminous  discourses  are  here  as  well — like  those 
which  flowed  from  the  serene  lips  of  the  Son  of  God  ; 
discourses  of  time,  and  also  of  eternity,  of  life  upon  the 
earth  and  life  in  the  heavens,  of  the  soul  of  man,  of  the 
beauty  of  God,  of  the  redemption  by  the  cross,  of  the  sanc- 
tification  by  the  Divine.  Spirit.  No  feature  of  the  Bible 
is  so  impressive  as  these  interpreting  and  transcendent 
discourses,  which  use  no  logic  and  require  no  argument, 
.which  impress  themselves,  as  the  sun  on  the  sod  which 
it  sprinkles  with  flowers,  on  the  spiritual  sense  of  every 
one  who  attentively  reads  and  inwardly  ponders  them. 
Even  fiction,  you  observe,  is  not  overlooked  in  this  as- 


98       UNITY  AND    VARIETY  OF  THE  BIB  IE. 

tonishing  literary  apparatus  employed  in  the  Bible.  The 
parables  give  narratives,  fictitious  in  form,  but  pre- 
senting incidents  that  are  probable  in  themselves,  and 
deriving  lessons  from  those  incidents  which  could  not 
be  so  distinctly  illustrated,  or  so  impressed  upon  the  mind, 
by  any  other  mode  of  communicating  thought. 

In  fact,  it  may  truly  be  said  that  there  is  no  species 
of  literary  workmanship,  which  is  appropriate  to  the  rev- 
elation of  spiritual  truth,  of  which  the  finest  examples 
that  we  possess  are  not  to  be  found  in  this  ancient  book. 
All  other  books  are  narrow  in  comparison,  and  restricted 
in  range.  They  are  books  upon  one  key,  and  this  upon 
many.  They  are  books  which  impress  truth,  so  far  as 
they  impress  it,  through  one  form  of  instrumentality, 
and  this  through  a  multitude.  We  should  anticipate  the 
oneness  of  the  Bible,  if  it  comes  to  us  from  God.  We 
should  anticipate  a  certain  abundant  and  charming  vari- 
ety in  the  forms  of  the  Bible,  if  it  be  his.  The  suprem- 
acy of  his  mind,  the  prodigal  inexhaustible  force  of 
his  will,  as  well  as  his  certain  wish  and  purpose  if  he 
should  give  a  revelation  at  all  to  give  it  in  a  form  to  attract 
wide  attention,  and  impress  powerfully  the  minds  of 
mankind — all  these  impel  us  to  look  for  variety  in  its 
structure.  But  that  which  we  find  well-nigh  surpasses 
our  largest  possible  expectation  ! 

Now,  observe  the  important  consequences  of  this 
constant  variety  in  the  literary  structure  of  the  Bible. 

It  becomes,  by  reason  of  it,  a  universal  book ;  since 
there   is   no   tribe  or  nation  that  does  not  enjoy  story, 


UNITY  AND    VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


99 


song,  parable,  eloquence ;  that  does  not  therefore  wel- 
come the  Bible,  as  opening  to  it  new  realms  of  thought, 
presenting  that  thought  in  the  most  engaging  and  fasci- 
nating forms,  and  giving  the  mind  intellectual  gratifica- 
tion, while  tending  all  the  time  to  irradiate  and  renew  the 
moral  nature.  There  is  almost  no  other  Oriental  book 
which  is  valued  and  sought  in  the  Western  world.  But 
this  is  just  as  familiar  to  the  Western  mind,  as  congenial 
to  it,  as  if  it  had  been  prepared  in  Europe.  There  is  no 
other  book,  read  studiously  in  Europe,  which  is  read  with 
equal  interest  and  gladness  in  the  Society  Islands,  in  In- 
dia, China,  and  among  the  barbarians  of  South  Africa, 
just  emerging  from  their  dense  darkness.  But  the  Bible 
goes  to  the  African  as  to  the  European  ;  goes  to  the  Isl- 
ander of  the  sea,  to  the  Chinaman  and  the  Hindoo,  to 
the  Indian  and  the  Arab,  as  well  as  to  the  citizen  trained 
by  schools,  expert  in  business,  in  these  United  States. 
There  is,  of  course,  a  certain  local  color  in  it  which  makes 
the  missionary  wdio  reads  it  in  the  East,  and  who  inter- 
prets it  into  the  Arabic — which  makes  the  traveller,  read- 
ing it  in  the  East,  among  the  localities  where  its  writings 
first  found  their  life  and  form — appreciate  the  beauty  and 
the  wonder  of  it  the  more.  But  it  is,  beyond  all  others, 
a  universal  book ;  and  largely  by  reason  of  this  amazing 
many-sidedness  of  its  literary  constitution. 

Then  it  is,  also,  a  comprehensive  and  commanding 
book,  as  addressed  to  any  individual  student ;  because  it 
appeals  to  each  faculty  of  the  mind,  interests  all,  and 
leaves  none  unchallenged.    It  appeals  to  men  in  all  moods 


loo     UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 

of  their  feeling.  It  appeals  to  them  in  all  stages  of  their 
life,  from  childhood  onward,  through  maturity,  until  the 
extremest  limit  of  age.  It  appeals  to  them  thus,  not 
merely  by  reason  of  the  substance  of  the  truth  which  it 
communicates,  but  also  of  this  variety  of  means  by  which 
it  conveys  it — in  song  and  story,  in  law  and  proverb,  in 
parable,  argument,  mighty  vision.  Every  faculty  of  the 
mind  is  therefore  addressed  by  it,  and  is  gratified  by  it. 
We  are  sometimes  in  trouble  because  certain  parts  or 
passages  of  the  Bible  are  less  interesting  to  us,  at  least 
in  certain  moods  of  feeling,  than  they  have  been  before ; 
are  not  as  interesting  to  us  now  as  they  were  when  we 
were  children  ;  or  have  lost  the  celestial  glow  which  was 
upon  them  when  we  read  them  with  tears  and  with  tri- 
umph in  our  grief.  But  the  Bible  is  intended  to  furnish 
something  for  every  mood,  the  most  sorrowful  and  the 
most  cheerful,  when  the  soul  is  sunken  in  grief,  and  when 
it  is  rising  in  new-born  ecstacy  of  strength  and  hope.  It 
has  parts  for  the  little  child,  and  parts  for  the  aged,  It 
is  the  only  book  in  the  world,  because  it  is  the  only  one 
which  has  this  marvellous  completeness  of  constitution, 
which  the  little  child  and  the  venerable  grandparent  will 
gladly  sit  down  and  read  together ;  which  is  at  home  in 
the  Sunday-school,  and  equally  at  home  in  the  highest 
university ;  which  the  most  disciplined  mind  can  never 
exhaust,  yet  which  the  youngest  and  rfiost  immature  can 
find  full  of  attraction,  instruction,  inspiration.  This,  by 
reason  of  the  marvellous  manifoldness  of  its  literary 
structure,  as  well  as  by  reason  of  the  grandeur  and  the 


UNITY  AND    VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE.     loi 

glory  of  that  system  of  truth  which  is  evermore  contained 
within  it. 

Observe,  too,  what  an  educating  book  it  becomes,  by 
reason  of  this  astonishing  variety  in  its  constitution.  It 
requires  a  man  to  match  one  part  against  another ;  to 
read  the  poem  in  the  light  of  the  narrative  ;  to  interpret 
th*e  argument  by  the  light  of  that  revelation  of  the  Son 
of  God  which  is  given  in  the  four  matchless,  divine  biog- 
raphies of  Him  ;  to  interpret  the  primitive  precept,  even, 
'under  the  radiance  of  that  final  vision  of  Judgment  which 
dashes  its  startling  splendor  on  us  from  the  great  white 
throne  ;  to  interpret  Christ's  declaration  of  forgiveness 
by  the  miracles  which  he  works,  and  the  doctrine  of  sanc- 
tification  by  the  Spirit  by  the  crystalline  sheen  of  the 
golden  streets  of  the  new  Jerusalem.  We  are  to  analyze, 
and  combine,  and  reconcile  parts,  to  bring  one  into  a 
close  comparison  with  another,  so  that  out  of  all  we  may 
derive  the  ultimate  truth  which  God  would  give  us  in  the 
Scripture.  The  flower  and  the  oak,  the  forest  and  the 
stream,  the  continent  and  the  ocean,  are  alike  parts  in 
this  manifold  whole  ;  and  we  cannot  fully  comprehend 
one  without  considering  all.  So  it  comes  to  be  a  book 
which  educates  the  mind  as  no  other  can  ;  which  tasks 
every  faculty  in  it ;  which  requires  in  its  student  a  moral 
state  sympathetic  with  His  from  whom  it  comes,  and 
which  requires  our  careful  perusal,  from  end  to  end,  in 
order  that  we  may  wholly  understand  it. 

I  can  understand  a  proposition,  logically  stated,  wheth- 
er I  sympathize  in  temper  or  not  with  the  man  who  de- 

9* 


I02     UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

clares  it ;  but  I  cannot  understand  such  an  outpouring  as 
this  claims  to  be  from  the  mind  of  the  Most  High,  so  va- 
rious, so  vast,  so  full  of  side-lights  as  it  is,  so  covered 
here  and  there  with  shadows,  so  delicate,  so  tender,  so 
majestic,  so  holy — I  cannot  understand  it  -until  my  soul 
is  also  bathed  in  the  effulgence  of  God's  own  light,  until 
I  am  in  the  spirit  of  my  soul  sympathetic  with  him.  If 
the  Bible  were  intended  only  to  give  a  scheme  of  intel- 
lectual gymnastics,  to  thoughtful  readers,  it  would  be  the 
most  wonderful  book  in  the  world.  A  perfect  system  of 
physical  gymnastics  is  that  which  develops  and  trains 
each  muscle,  which  quickens  and  educates  every  nerve, 
which  makes  each  limb  and  member  act  in  perfect  ac- 
cord with  every  other,  which  gives  its  due  proportion  of 
power  to  every  part  of  this  sensitive,  organized  human 
frame.  A  true  system  of  mental  gymnastics  is  that 
which  touches,  reaches,  educates  every  faculty,  every 
sensibility.  And  the  Bible  does  it,  by  reason  of  its  man- 
ifold and  amazing  constitution.  At  the  same  time,  how- 
ever, that  it  does  this,  it  -makes  the  essential  truth  shine 
from  it,  as  the  light  of  the  diamond  shines  from  each  one 
of  its  scores  of  facets. 

Observe,  also,  that  by  reason  of  this  it  becomes  the 
great  power  which  it  is  in  civilization  ;  not  merely  by 
reason  of  the  truth  which  it  contains — though  by  reason 
of  that  primarily — but  by  reason  also  of  the  singular  va- 
riety of  form  through  which  that  truth  is  declared  to  man- 
kind. It  touches  the  historical  research  which  explores 
the  old  world,  at  every  point.     It  stimulates  inquiry.     It 


UNITY  AND    VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE.     103 

invites  comment.  It  invites  even  criticism,  expects  it, 
challenges  it,  offers  it  every  possible  opportunity,  says 
nothing  in  reply,  but  simply  lets  it  die  if  it  is  persistent 
and  malicious.  Therefore  it  is  that  the  commentaries 
written  upon  the  Scripture  form  libraries  of  themselves, 
so  numerous  they  are,  and  so  extensive.  It  touches  art, 
science,  poetry,  every  department  oE  human  thought  and 
of  intellectual  achievement,  by  reason  also  of  this  variety 
of  its  constitution.  Of  course  we  are  familiar  with  this  : 
but  it  is  really  amazing  to  see  how  the  poetry  of  the 
world,  for  example,  takes  its  themes  and  its  impulses 
from  the  Bible ;  how  sculpture  and  painting  find'  both 
their,  subjects  and  their  inspiration  in  these  ancient  sto- 
ries, and  primitive  songs  ;  how  pencil,  chisel,  and  the 
skill  of  the  architect,  are  made  to  carry  the  tidings  and 
the  treasures  of  the  life  of  the  Lord  to  distant  lands,  and 
through  all  time ;  how  everywhere  the  thought  of  the 
world  is  stimulated,  its  intelligence  attracted,  its  power 
educated,  through  its  contact  with  this  marvellous  book 
of  God. 

So  it  becomes  the  power  which  it  is  in  civilization. 
It  works  itself  into  the  life  of  each  people,  and  builds  up 
nations  into  order  and  greatness.  See  how  it  has  built 
up  the  English  people  out  of  Saxons  and  Danes :  ta- 
king our  ancestors,  who  used  to  burn  their  captives  of 
war  in  wicker  baskets,  as  a  sacrifice  to  their  gods,  and 
making  of  them  the  free  enlightened  nations  which  now 
we  find,  on  that  side  of  the  Atlantic  and  on  this.  Be- 
cause of  this  variety,  in  what  may  be  called  the  physical 


I04     UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIB  IE. 

constitution  of  the  Bible,  it  gets  access  to  every  nation 
in  the  world,  as  it  could  not  otherwise  :  and  because  of 
this  it  blesses  each  nation  as  no  book  of  narrower  com- 
pass could. 

Thus  too  it  becomes  an  inexhaustible  book,  because 
not  exhibiting  thought  alone,  but  action,  character,  human 
life.  Life  in  its  nature  is  inexhaustible.  One  may  follow 
carefully  a  proposition  in  logic  until  he  knows  it  altogeth- 
er. It  has  no  contents  which  he  has  not  considered. 
But  one  never  searches  out  a  human  life,  in  personal 
presence,  or  as  presented  in  the  vivid  and  life-like  por- 
traiture of  the  Bible,  until  he  knows  it  as  completely. 
Always  there  are  secrets  hidden  within  it,  unfathomable 
recesses,  shadowy  tendencies,  great  abysses ;  there  are 
jDassions,  weaknesses,  high  aspirations,  singular  attain- 
ments, which  another  cannot  compass.  The  Bible  be- 
comes inexhaustible  as  the  heavens,  because  there  is  so 
much  of  personal  life  crowded  into  its  thousand-fold 
story ;  while  yet  its  whole  spiritual  lesson  may  be  com- 
pressed into  a  text,  and  a  sentence  may  give  the  sub- 
tance  of  revelation.  So  Micah  gives  us  the  complete 
summing  up  of  the  ancient  economy  in  his  words  :  "  What 
doth  God  require  of  thee,  O  man,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to 
love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God  !"  So  in 
the  New  Testament  the  whole  Bible  is  put  into  that  one 
sentence,  which  a  child  can  remember:  "God  so  loved 
the  world  that  he  gave  his  only-begotten  Son,  that  who- 
soever believeth  in  him  should  not  perish  but  have  eter- 
nal life."     The  origin  of  redemption,  in  the  eternal  love  of 


UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIB  IE.     105 

God  ;  the  unique  glory  and  place  in  the  universe  of  the 
Son  of  God,  who  came  as  Redeemer ;  the  one  condition 
of  eternal  life,  in  our  faith  in  this  Redeemer ;  the  misery 
and  the  peril  on  the  one  hand,  the  vital  glory  and  felici- 
ty on  the  other,  which  follow  men's  different  relations  to 
Christ — all  are  here  compacted  into  a  sentence.  If  all 
the  rest  of  the  Bible  were  lost,  that  sentence  surviving 
would  perpetuate  its  substance. 

It  is  one  of  the  illustrations  of  the  divine  wisdom  in 
the  surpassing  constitution  of  the  Scripture,  that  it  is  so 
inexhaustible,  and  yet  that  in  parts  it  is  so  transparently 
and  entirely  simple.  Compressed  into  a  text,  it  fills  a 
volume  with  infinite  variations  on  its  one  supreme  theme. 
So  it  enters  into  the  life  of  nations.  So  it  stimulates  lit- 
erature, quickens  invention,  fosters  art.  So  it  trains  and 
ennobles  all  faculties  of  the  soul.  So  it  revolutionizes 
society  peacefully,  exalts  it  permanently,  and  sheds  con- 
tinuous force  and  blessing  on  every  nation  into  whose 
possession  it  has  come. 

Observe  too,  still  further,  how,  through  this  remarka- 
ble constitution  of  the  Bible,  it  becomes  really  incapable 
of  being  perverted,  by  the  interpolation  of  texts,  by  the 
extraction  of  texts  which  stand  properly  in  their  places, 
so  that  the  revelation  shall  be  made  to  teach  another 
doctrine  than  that  which  it  ought  to  bring  from  God. 
We  do  not  think  of  this,  perhaps,  as  often  as  we  should. 

We  hear  so  much  said  of  this  suspected  text,  and  that 
doubtful  passage,  of  this  probable  interpolation  from  the 
margin,  and  of   the  long  quarrel    which    scholars   have 


ic6      UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 

waged  over  that  Greek  letter,  mark,  or  accent,  that  we 
sometimes  forget  that  God,  in  his  constitution  of  the  Bi- 
ble has  made  it  impossible  to  seriously  pervert  it.  Of 
course  there  will  be  erroneous  transcriptions.  The  hand 
of  the  scribe  is  not  inspired.  Of  course,  there  may  be 
here  and  there  insertions,  of  a  marginal  note,  written  into 
the  text.  Of  course  there  may  be  a  word  dropped  out,  or  a 
vowel  omitted,  in  one  passage  or  another.  The  eye  of 
the  scribe  will  sometimes  fail  to  discern  distinctly  what 
it  sees  or  what  it  omits  ;  and  there  must  be  of  necessity 
more  or  less  liability  to  minute  error  in  making  copies  of 
so  many  writings.  But  the  great  course  of  doctrine  can- 
not be  eliminated  from  the  Scripture,  except  as  you  tear 
the  whole  fabric  into  tatters.  It  is  interwoven,  every  part 
with  every  other — story,  law,  precept,  proverb,  the  biogra- 
phies of  Christ  by  the  evangelists,  and  the  argument  of 
Christ  by  the  apostles,  and  the  vision  of  Christ  in  the 
Apocalypse  ;  until,  if  you  throw  away  one  part,  you  must 
equally  throw  away  many  others.  You  may  get  rid  of 
the  story  of  Balaam  ;  though,  if  you  do,  you  will  miss  one 
of  the  most  picturesque  and  impressive  stories  in  all  the 
Old  Testament.  But  what  then  will  you  do  with  the  ref- 
erences to  him,  in  Micah,  in  Peter,  and  in  the  Revelation  } 
You  may  get  rid,  perhaps,  of  the  miracle  in  the  passage  of 
the  Red  sea,  and  suppose  a  mere  shift  of  the  wind  when 
Pharaoh's  army  was  divinely  destroyed.  But  what  then 
are  you  to  do  with  the  song  of  Moses  and  of  Miriam  t  and 
what  with  the  76th  psalm,  and  the  io6th,  and  the  1 14th  } 
and  what  with  the  *'  song  of  Moses  and  the  Lamb"  in  the 


UNITY  AND    VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE.     107 

crowning  book  of  the  Apocalypse  ?  They  are  inter- 
braided,  like  threads  that  have  been  woven  so  closely  to- 
gether that  you  cannot  tear  them  apart  except  by  de- 
stroying the  entire  fabric.  You  cannot  extract  one  and 
leave  the  rest,  with  any  ingenuity  or  by  any  force. 

Thus  it  fares  with  the  difficulties  in  the  Biblical  text, 
of  which  skeptics  have  sometimes  made  so  much.  Ne- 
cessarily, always,  by  the  manifold  constitution  of  the 
Scripture,  they  must  amount  to  very  little.  They  are 
like  scratches  on  the  stones  of  the  Milan  cathedral ;  like 
the  breaking  of  a  single  pane  of  its  pictured  glass,  or  the 
breaking  off  of  a  finger,  or  possibly  a  fore-arm,  from  one 
of  its  five  thousand  statues.  The  great  structure  stands 
unimpaired,  shining,  imperial,  in  the  serene  Italian  air. 
The  Bible  stands,  majestic,  unfractured,  in  the  same  way. 
You  may  take  away  a  vowel  here,  or  throw  away  an  ac- 
cent there ;  you  may  pick  up  a  word  which  has  been 
dropped,  or  throw  out  a  word  which  has  been  added  ;  but 
God  in  his  wisdom  has  made  it  so  multiform,  so  many- 
sided  and  various  in  its  parts,  and  has  inwoven  each  part 
so  perfectly  with  all  the  others,  that  you  cannot  destroy 
it,  except  by  annihilating  its  whole  structure.  The  Jewish 
counting  of  words  and  letters  insured  extraordinary  ac- 
curacy to  its  copies.  But  no  inaccuracy  could  touch  its 
life,  unless  it  were  repeated  hundreds  of  times. 

Observe,  still  further,  how  it  holds  the  attention  of  the 
world  to  itself,  to  its  own  text,  by  reason  of  this  special 
structure  of  it.  It  does  not  allow  any  equal  paraphrase. 
Erasmus,  that  beautiful  scholar  of  the  Reformation-pe- 


io8     UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

riod,  wrote  an  eloquent  paraphrase  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, which  was  early  translated  by  Coverdale  into  Eng- 
lish, a  copy  of  which  was  ordered  by  the  Government,  I 
think,  to  be  placed  in  every  parish  church  of  England, 
Who  now  ever  reads  it  ?  Who  ever  hears  of  it,  except  as 
a  famous  curiosity  of  literature  ?  You  may  possibly  find 
it  in  some  secondhand  bookshop,  or  on  the  shelves  of 
some  bibliomaniac ;  but  you  scarcely  ever,  probably  never, 
see  it  used  by  one  who  is  trying  to  ascertain  the  sense 
of  the  Scripture.  Doddridge,  pastor,  preacher,  theolo- 
gian— pure,  lovely,  admirable,  famous  in  all  these  offices — 
wrote  a  paraphrase  of  the  New  Testament.  Who  reads 
that  to-day  ?  Sometimes  you  may  look  at  it  for  a  pas- 
sage, or  a  sentence,  to  see  if  you  can  get  new  light  upon 
a  Scripture  concerning  which  you  are  in  darkness.  But 
who  would  undertake  to  read  it  through,  leaving  the  text 
of  the  New  Testament,  and  going  to  this  paraphrase  of 
even  so  eminent,  so  devout  a  man  as  Philip  Doddridge, 
the  perfume  of  whose  spirit  would  make  any  work  fra- 
grant which  he  undertook  } 

No  !  you  cannot  paraphrase  the  Bible,  for  the  reason 
that  the  multiform  structure  of  it  cannot  be  reproduced 
by  any  one  mind.  You  must  take  the  forty  minds  that 
made  it,  if  you  want  to  make  another  like  it ;  and  then 
you  must  have  the  superintending,  inspiring  force  of  the 
one  Divine  Spirit  to  keep  them  in  harmony,  and  to  keep 
them  at  that  supreme  exaltation  of  feeling  and  thought 
in  which  they  wrote.  It  is  this  alone  which  gives  to 
their  words  such  perennial,  fruitful  power.     If  one  man 


UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBIE,     109 

were  at  the  same  time  all  poet  and  all  logician,  all  histo- 
rian and  all  lawgiver,  all  prophet  and  all  biographer,  all 
ethical  philosopher  and  all  maker  of  parables ;  if  he  were 
then  filled  to  the  full  with  the  mind  of  God,  and  made 
equal  to  the  Son  of  God — he  might  make  another  Scrip- 
ture. But  until  then,  no  possible  paraphrase  of  the  Bible 
can  ever  satisfy  the  thought  and  the  heart  of  the  world. 

The  text  of  the  Scripture  holds  the  mind  to  itself, 
and  out  of  itself  propels  its  own  energy  and  beauty  into 
every  treatise  that  would  expound  it,  into  every  system 
that  is  vitally  derived  from  it.  It  keeps  theology  itself 
from  becoming  as  dry  as  the  "ribbed  sea-sand,"  and 
makes  it,  as  far  as  it  adheres  to  the  letter  of  God's  word, 
and  is  in  harmony  with  its  spirit,  fresh  and  green,  -full  of 
force  and  full  of  grace.  It  is  the  one  Scripture  which 
never  grows  old,  with  fountains  sparkling  amid  its  gran- 
ite, and  harebells  wreathed  around  its  cliffs. 

And  yet,  by  reason  of  this  constitution,  see  also  how 
capable  it  is  of  being  translated  into  each  language  ;  not 
only  incapable  of  being  destroyed  by  mutilation  or  addi- 
tion, or  of  being  supplanted  by  any  paraphrase,  but  capa- 
ble of  being  physically  transferred  into  each  foreign 
tongue,  as  is  no  other  book  on  the  earth.  Reading  the 
best  translation  of  a  foreign  work  is  usually  like  looking 
at  the  painted  windows  of  the  chapel  or  cathedral  from 
the  outside.  You  see  merely  the  general  outline,  per- 
haps only  vague  and  clashing  blotches  of  color ;  you  do 
not  see  the  fine  inestimable  touches  and  traits,  the  har- 
monious beauty  of  delicate  lines,  the  glory  of  the  golden 

10 


iro     UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

crown,  the  rich  crimson  and  bkie  of  the  robes.  You  see 
them  only  darkly  tinted,  perhaps  distorted.  But  the 
Bible  is  capable  of  indefinite  translation  into  all  human 
tongues,  because  each  tongue  has  in  it  of  necessity  the 
terms  of  narrative,  of  poetry,  of  law,  of  biography,  and 
of  parable ;  ^nd  these  make  up  so  much  of  the  Scrip- 
ture !  Then,  if  you  find  that  there  is  a  final  poverty  in 
the  language — which  never  has  had  the  Scripture  ideas 
as  yet  expressed  in  it — a  poverty  of  terms  to  express  the 
great  facts  of  justification,  regeneration,  of  redemption 
by  Christ,  and  of  the  disciples'  inner  experience,  language 
itself,  when  it  has  taken  the  Bible  into  it,  becomes  ex- 
panded, ennobled,  spiritualized.  It  enlarges  itself  to  the 
compass  of  the  new  treasure,  it  exalts  itself  to  the  height 
of  the  recent  acquisition..  The  language  is  regenerated, 
as  well  as  the  spirit  of  the  people  who  use  it.  It  be- 
comes heavenlier,  as  does  their  society.  So  it  was  that 
Eliot  could  take  this  immense  and  magnificent  book, 
made  by  so  many  writers  in  so  many  ages,  under  the 
superintendence  of  one  supreme  mind,  and  put  it  into 
the  sterile  and  narrow  Algonquin  tongue,  that  never  be- 
fore had  held  a  conception  of  any  one  of  all  the  facts,  of 
any  one  of  all  the  elements  of  spiritual  experience,  which 
the  Scripture  brings  to  light.  So  it  is  that  it  can  go  to- 
day into  the  language  of  the  Chinaman,  of  the  Japanese, 
the  New-Zealander,  the  Esquimaux,  the  Tamil  people  or 
the  Tartars,  or  the  Bushmen  of  South  Africa.  It  can 
go,  as  it  has  gone,  into  more  than  two  hundred  languages 
of  the  earth.     It  can  go  into  all,  by  reason  of  the  fact 


UNITY  AND    VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE,     iii 

that  it  is  so  carefully  and  variously  made  up,  of  story,  song, 
law,  proverb.  You  cannot  translate  other  books  in  like 
manner,  as  I  have  said.  ThejEact  that  this  book  can  be 
thus  translated,  as  it  indeed  has  been,  and  can  be  made 
the  property  of  the  world — the  fact  that  we  have  this 
wonderful  modern  gift  of  tongues,  through  these  transla- 
tions of  the  Scripture  into  so  many  languages  and  dia- 
lects of  mankind — is  owing  to  its  marvellous  literary  con- 
stitution. No  language  will  fail  to  give  some  part  of  it 
clearly  and  fully ;  and  each  part  by  itself,  when  fully  re- 
ceived, will  be  found  to  be  instinct  with  the  life  of  the 
whole. 

But  observe,  yet  further,  that  from  that  whole,  so  va- 
rious, so  vast,  so  complete  as  it  is,  we  gather  a  final,  total 
impression  of  the  truth  which  it  brings,  which  is  far  more 
sufficient  and  far  more  impressive  than  we  otherwise 
could  have  had  ;  because  we  see  that  truth  at  so  many 
angles,  from  so  many  points,  and  through  the  medium  of 
so  many  styles.  The  Bible  is  like  a  diamond  that  has 
not  one,  but  fifty  faces,  from  each  of  which  the  radiance 
flashes.  It  is  like  a  great  palace,  not  like  a  wall.  Many 
books  are  like  walls,  thin,  perpendicular,  alike  on  both 
sides,  which  are  only  attractive  when  thoroughly  masked 
under  trellis  and  vine.  Here  is  a  palace,  with  many 
fronts,  with  hospitable  doorways,  storied  roofs,  far-reach- 
ing outlooks  ;  its  whole  exterior  broken  into  different 
angles  and  gables,  hanging  balconies,  oriel  windows  ;  its 
vast  interior  rich  in  saloons,  music-halls,  galleries,  libra- 
ries, the  theatre,  the  throne-room,  all  the  apartments  for 


112     UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

work  and  for  rest,  for  study  and  for  pleasure,  for  public 
ceremonial,  and  for  serene  domestic  joy.  Such  is  the 
Bible.  And  from  this  manifoldness  of  its  structure  we 
get  a  final  impression  of  its  truth,  which  is  richer  and 
more  powerful  than  could  possibly  have  been  made  if  in 
its  constitution  it  had  been  narrower  and  more  limited. 

One  of  our  American  artists,  wishing  to  perfect  for 
himself  a  portrait  and  a  bust  of  Shakespeare,  took  the 
death-mask  from  the  face  of  the  poet,  and  had  twenty  or 
thirty  photographs  made,  from  every  possible  angle  of 
vision,  that  he  might  get  the  fullest  light  on  every  point 
of  face  and  head ;  then  came  the  portrait  on  the  can- 
vas, and  then  the  stately  head  in  marble.  So  we  look 
at  the  figure  and  face  of  Christ,  as  these  are  given  us  in 
the  Bible  :  from  the  earliest  prophecy,  from  the  law,  from 
the  ritual,  from  the  psalm  and  the  song,  from  the  evan- 
gelical prophecies  of  Isaiah,  from  the  story  of  Matthew, 
and  the  other  of  Mark,  and  the  other  of  Luke,  and  the 
wonderful  spiritual  story  of  John,  from  the  argument  of 
Paul,  the  exhortation  of  Peter,  and  the  great  vision  at 
last  of  the  King  in  the  heavens — when  the  garden,  with 
which  the  race  began,  has  become  the  eternal  city  of 
God,  and  when  the  babe-prince  is  the  Lord  of  the  saints — 
we  take  all  these,  and  from  them  all  we  get  such  a  transcen- 
dent image  of  the  Son  of  God  as  no  one  writer  could 
have  given.  It  takes  forty  writers,  even  under  the  inspi- 
ration of  God,  to  portray  for  us  that  sympathizing  Sove- 
reign, that  bleeding  Conqueror,  that  crucified  King, 
whom  we  are  by-and-by  to  see,  with  the  pierced  bands 


UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE.     113 

holding  the  sceptre,  with  the  many  diadems  where  was 
of  old  the  crown  of  thorns  ! 

So  it  is,  Friends  and  Fellow-workers,  that  this  variety 
in  the  structure  of  the  Scripture  vindicates  the  book  in 
which  it  is  found  as  coming  from  God ;  designed  in  his 
wisdom,  accomplished  by  the  impulse  and  the  influence 
of  his  Spirit.  It  makes  the  book  universal  in  its  range, 
adapted  to  all  men.  It  makes  it  comprehensive  in  its 
appeal  to  each  individual  student  of  it.  It  makes  it  the 
most  educating  book  in  the  world,  to  him  who  would  mas- 
ter all  its  contents  ;  makes  it  the  grandest  power  in  civil- 
ization, by  which  inquiry  is  challenged  and  thought  is 
stirred,  on  every  side,  which  becomes  the  germ  of  arts 
and  of  sciences,  of  universities  and  libraries,  of  generous 
literatures,  social  ameliorations,  enlightened  governments. 
Because  it  is  formed  as  it  is,  it  is  made  impossible  to 
destroy  its  integrity,  or  to  make  it  teach  another  doctrine 
than  that  in  which  all  its  parts  concur ;  impossible  to 
paraphrase,  yet  easy  to  translate  it,  into  every  tongue. 
Because  it  is  framed  as  it  is,  we  get  from  it  such  an  ulti- 
mate impression  and  conception  of  the  truth,  so  complete 
and"  so  powerful,  as  could  not  otherwise  have  been  con- 
veyed. And  all  the  time  it  is  one  in  its  substance,  in  its 
truth,  in  its  law,  in  its  clear  revelation  of  God  and  his 
government,  of  man  and  his  needs,  of  Christ  the  Lord, 
the  King  of  the  world,  and  of  the  Divine  spiritual  king- 
dom in  which  he  is  the  head,  and  into  which  all  who 
believe  in  him  are  thereby  gathered.  It  has  a  vast,  mul- 
tiform oneness  ;  not  like  that  of    Paradise  Lost,  or  of 

10* 


1 14     UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 

Plato's  Republic,  or  even  of  the  Koran,  which  is  one  by 
limitation,  because  the  utterance  of  a  single  mind.  This 
is  a  oneness  compacted  out  of  all  the  varieties  of  experi- 
ence, power,  spiritual  culture,  in  many  separate  and 
widely  scattered  writers.  It  is  a  unity  built  of  variety ; 
and  it  makes  the  Bible  the  supreme  phenomenon  of  the 
literary  world.  It  is  like  the  earth.  It  is  a  book  for  the 
earth,  and,  as  I  said  before,  it  corresponds  with  it :  one 
planet,  but  with  rivers,  meadows,  and  mountain  ranges, 
assembled  in  it ;  with  seas  and  islands,  the  narrow  isth- 
mus, the  outstretch  of  continents  ;  with  monitory  fires 
underneath,  and  the  great  solemn  stars  above;  with  the 
moon  walking  the  sky,  as  to-night,  in  placid  brightness, 
and  the  sun  shedding  the  splendor  of  day  across  the 
lands  that  are  glad  in  his  coming.  So  is  the  Bible.  It 
has  parable  and  psalm,  brief  story  and  vast  legislation, 
mighty  argument,  charming  incident,  curt  admonition. 
It  too  has  its  Sun  of  Righteousness ;  its  Old  Testament 
and  its  New,  like  answering  hemispheres,  what  is  latent 
in  the  one  being  patent  in  the  other.  Before  the  threat  of 
its  penalties  the  earth  throbs.  The  unsearchable  splen- 
dor of  its  promises  gilds  the  skies. 

Assuredly  it  is  the  Book  of  God.  When  you  can 
prove  to  me  that  man  has  built  the  mountains  of  brick- 
work, and  has  covered  the  earth  with  a  mud  which  he  has 
manufactured  for  soil — when  you  can  convince  me  that 
he  has  adjusted  the  planet  in  its  poise,  and  set  the  stars 
upon  their  courses — then  you  may  prove  to  me  that  the 
Bible,  with  its  oneness  and  its  infinite  variety,  its  produc- 


UNITY  AND   VARIETY  OF  THE  BIB  IE.     115 

tioii  extending  over  fifteen  hundred  years,  and  with  its 
last  verse  answering  to  its  first  across  the  dreary  drift  of 
ages,  has  come  to  us  from  man  ! 

Let  us  study  it,  then,  my  friends,  with  eager  reverence. 
Let  us  consider  it  with  such  thoroughness  of  examina- 
tion as  is  suitable  to  a  book  which  comes  to  us  from  such 
a  source !  Let  us  count  it  our  grandest  privilege  to 
study  it ;  our  beautiful  duty  to  teach  its  wondrous  truths 
to  others,  and  to  spread  the  knowledge  of  itself  and  its 
contents  around  the  world.  What  a  mission  it  is  to 
make  it  known  !  We  sound  again  the  harp  of  David, 
and  put  to  our  modern  lips  the  golden  trumpet  of  Isaiah ; 
we  speak  again  with  Paul  in  the  jostling  streets  of  Ephe- 
sus  or  of  Corinth,  or  under  the  matchless  temples  of  the 
Acropolis  ;  we  speak  with  Moses,  fresh  from  the  thunder 
and  lightnings  of  the  mount,  and  with  his  face  yet  shi- 
ning with  a  gleam  from  the  glory  of  God  ;  yea,  reverently 
we  may  say  it,  we  speak  again  with  the  Lord  himself,  at 
the  well-side,  at  the  supper,  from  the  cross  on  which  he 
died,  from  the  throne  on  which  he  reigns — when  we  send 
this  Bible  around  the  world  ! 

No  other  office  is  so  grand.  No  other  privilege, 
supreme  as  this,  can  meet  us  until  we  reach  the  higher 
levels  of  the  universe  which  we  dwell  in,  and  enter  the 
felicities  which  wait  for  those  who,  having  loved  the  Lord 
on  earth,  as  he  is  here  revealed  in  his  w^ord,  at  last  for 
ever  stand  before  him,  and  do  his  work,  and  see  his  glory, 
face  to  face ! 


ANCIENT  HISTORY 


IN    ITS  CONNECTION 


With  the  Old  Testament. 


REV.  HOWARD  CROSBY,  D.  D., 

PASTOR  OF  THE  FOURTH  AVENUE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  NEW  YORK. 


This  Lecture  of  Dr.  Crosby's  \vas  delivered  ^AT-ith 
constant  reference  to  charts  and  maps,  ^vhich  -will  | 

account  for  the  "want  of  finish  and  apparent  con-  l 

nection  in  some  of  its  parts.    It  is  printed  entirely  ; 

from  the  stenographer's  notes.  ! 


ANCIENT  HISTORY 


IN  ITS  CONNECTION 


With  the  Old  Testament 


We  have  had  of  late  a  great  many  apologies  for  the 
Bible  from  invertebrate  Christians,  and  the  form  of  the 
apology  has  been,  "  The  Bible  was  not  intended  to  teach 
us  science  !"  Now,  if  the  Bible  is  not  to  be  trusted  in 
its  science,  it  is  not  to  be  trusted  in  its  religion.  What 
would  you  think  of  an  inspired  man  who  would  come  to 
you  and  tell  you  that  he  came  from  God  to  teach  you,  and 
should  begin  his  address  by  informing  you  that  when 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  assassinated,  George  Washington 
succeeded  to  the  Presidential  chair  ?  Would  you  have 
any  confidence  in  his  inspiration  ?  Where  the  Bible 
teaches  cosmogony,  it  teaches  the  truth  ;  and  where  it 
teaches  history,  it  teaches  the  truth  ;  and  Satan  knows 
well  that  if  he  can  undermine  the  truth  of  the  science 
of  the  Scriptures,  he  can  make  all  the  Scriptures  doubt- 
ful. The  first  and  tenth  chapters  of  Genesis  are  chap- 
ters of  great  similarity.     The  first  chapter  is  a  declara- 


120    HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

tion  from  God  concerning  the  palaeology,  I  may  call  it, 
of  the  earth  on  which  we  live,  and  the  second  chapter  is 
just  such  a  declaration  of  the  palaeology  of  our  race. 
Neither  of  those  chapters  could  have  been  written  by 
untutored  man.  There  was  no  science  in  the  Mosaic 
age  that  could  have  been  the  guide  of  Moses  in  his  nar- 
rations in  either  of  those  chapters,  and  yet  in  that  first 
chapter  we  find  a  detailed  order  of  creation  which  the 
careful  and  searching  geology  of  our  own  time  has  proved 
to  be  the  exact  order,  and  the  last  link  in  the  proof  was 
only  obtained  three  years  ago.  The  Mosaic  account  puts 
the  creation  of  plants  before  the  creation  of  animals;  but 
Geology,  four  years  ago,  had  found  that  animals  came 
first  in  the  book  of  rocks,  and  plants  were  above  them  in 
the  carboniferous  stratum  ;  so  tJicre  was  a  varying,  and 
the  Bible,  you  see,  was  wrong ;  but  '*  the  Bible  was  not 
meant  to  teach  us  science" — that  was  the  answer  four 
years  ago.  But  three  years  ago,  down  below  the  ani- 
mals, was  found  an  immense  amount  of  graphite,  or 
plumbago,  which  is  the  result  of  the  decomposition  of 
vegetable  matter;  and  now  the  link  is  complete  and  the 
stories  are  parallel — the  one  told  by  Moses,  and  the  other 
by  geologists  of  to-day. 

Let  us  be,  therefore,  a  little  careful  of  our  readiness  to 
apologize  for  the  mistakes  of  the  Scripture  by  saying  "  the 
Scripture  was  not  made  to  teach  us  science."  The  tenth 
chapter  of  Genesis  is  a  story  told  by  Moses  of  the  distri- 
bution of  the  races  of  men.  No  ethnology  in  his  period, 
no  history,  no  philology,  could  have  taught  that  to  Mo- 


HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT.    121 

ses  ;  but  now  the  historian,  helped  by  all  the  monuments 
of  Babylon,  Assyria,  Egypt,  and  Palestine,  and  the  phi- 
lologist and  the  ethnologist  all  agree,  after  their  marvel- 
lous researches  in  this  century,  that  the  tenth  chapter  of 
Genesis  exactly  describes  the  distribution  of  the  race. 
Where  did  Moses  get  these  chapters  from  ?  He  did  not 
get  them  from  science.     He  got  them  from  God ! 

I  purpose  this  evening,  in  the  hour  you  give  me, 
briefly — but  I  hope  as  interestingly  as  a  dry  subject  may 
be  treated — to  put  before  you  some  of  the  illustrations 
of  the  history  of  the  Old  Testament  that  have  been 
brought  before  our  notice  by  the  discoveries  in  the  Mes- 
opotamian  Valley  during  the  last  tvi^enty-five  years,  but 
especially  in  the  last  ten  years,  and,  indeed,  some  of 
them  within  the  last  twelve  months. 

We  all  knew  a  great  deal  about  Greece  and  Rome  up 
to  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago,  but  we  knew  very  little 
indeed  about  Egypt,  and  still  less  about  the  great  Meso- 
potamian  Valley.  With  regard  to  the  latter  we  had  a 
few  fragments  of  Greek  writers,  and  some  slight  allu- 
sions in  the  history  of  Herodotus,  but  beyond  this  we 
were  in  the  dark,  only  having  the  references  that  are 
made  in  the  Scripture,  unsupported  by  any  other  evi- 
dence. For  example,  what  did  we  know  of  the  old 
Assyrian,  Babylonian,  and  Chaldean  empires }  They 
»were  all  in  confusion.  The  account  of  Ctesias,  who 
was  the  court  physician  of  Artaxerxes  Mnemon,  was  a 
confused  account.     It  left  us  in  doubt  both  as  to  times 

and  places,  and  made  us  quite  confident,  when  we  got 

11 


122    HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

through  the  record,  that  we  had  been  reading  a  romance. 
Of  the  whole  Assyrian  empire  of  a  thousand  years,  he 
only  mentions  one  or  two  royal  personages,  e.  g.,  Ninus, 
the  founder,  and  Semiramis ;  and  one  of  these,  Semira- 
mis,  builds  cities  everywhere,  and  all  of  them  are  a  mile 
high  and  one  hundred  miles  square,  and  all  filled  with 
about  a  million  of  people,  and  she  scatters  them  all  over 
the  country  in  a  most  remarkable,  Aladdin-like  way. 
That  is  all  the  story  we  have  of  Assyria  from  the  old 
sources,  nothing  that  we  could  believe  in  except  that 
there  was  a  great  queen,  Semiramis.  Now,  the  whole 
story  of  the  Mesopotamian  Valley  has  been  dug  up  out 
of  that  valley,  the  excavations  beginning  thirty-three 
years  ago,  when,  in  1843,  Mr.  Botta,  the  son  of  the  histo- 
rian of  the  American  Revolution,  and  relative  of  my  hon- 
ored friend.  Professor  Botta  of  this  city,  first  began  the 
explorations  in  the  Mound  of  Koyunjik,  opposite  Mosul. 
He  was  followed  by  Layard,  who  made  still  more  remark- 
able discoveries ;  and  since  that  we  have  had  a  number 
who  have  engaged  in  this  work  of  exploration,  not  only 
of  the  locality,  but  of  the  language  and  the  history  of 
that  remarkable  people.  And  now  we  have  the  history 
of  ancient  Chaldea  and  its  successor,  Assyria,  almost  as 
clearly  put  before  us  as  the  history  of  mediaeval  Germany 
and  France.  A  library  has  been  found  in  the  piles  at 
Nineveh  of  one  of  the  last  princes  of  Assyria,  who  died 
about  640  years  b.  c.,.and  that  library  was  discovered  to 
be  full  of  books  of  all  kinds — arithmetics,  geographies, 
histories,  spelling-books,  dictionaries,  and  every  style  of 


HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT.     123 

work  that  the  authors  of  those  ancient  days  wrote.  They 
had  been  preserved  by  the  falHng  in  of  these  brick  build- 
ings, carefully  preserved  by  the  destroyer,  and  now  a 
large  quantity  of  the  contents  of  this  library  have  been 
carried  to  the  museums  of  Europe,  the  largest  part,  per- 
haps, going  to  the  British  Museum.  Men  have  been 
enabled  not  only  to  find  out  the  meaning  of  the  remark- 
able cuneiform  character,  but  also  to  bring  out  from  its 
grave  a  language — nay,  two,  three  languages — that  were 
altogether  dead,  of  which  not  one  single  word  or  syllable 
was  known  to  us  before  ;  and  now  those  languages  have 
their  grammars  and  their  dictionaries  and  their  reading- 
books,  and  we  can  study  them  in  our  homes  as  we  can 
study  Hebrew  or  Greek.  There  is  the  Assyrian  language 
especially,  of  which  there  is  now  found  an  immense  liter- 
ature, the  Hterature  especially  of  the  kings  of  Assyria,  a 
language  which  is  the  old  parent  of  the  Hebrew — the 
Sanscrit,  so  to  speak,  of  the  Semitic  dialects ;  and  there 
is  the  Akkad  language,  as  it  is  called,  or  one  of  the  Tu- 
ranian stock,  belonging  to  Southern  Babylonia  ;  and 
then,  also,  there  is  the  Median  language ;  and  these  three 
languages,  that  thirty  years  ago  were  not  known  to  exist, 
have  now  their  full  development  in  grammar  and  dic- 
tionary. 

In  these  remarkable  remains  have  been  found  the 
tablets  written  with  the  cuneiform  character  by  kings 
some  of  whom  reigned  2,000  years  before  Christ,  in  the 
time  of  Abraham  and  before  him ;  and  in  some  of  these 
tablets  we  have  long  and  particular  records  of  all  the 


124    HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

events  of  their  reigns;  and  it  is  interesting  for  us,  in 
examining  these  records,  to  find  at  times  the  mention  of 
Palestine  and  the  kings  with  whose  names  we  are  so  fa- 
miUar  in  Holy  Writ.  If  I  take  up  the  Bible,  then,  and 
look  through  it  in  its  order,  the  first  thing  that  I  would 
call  your  attention  to  is  the  very  name  of  the  Southern 
country ;  and  this  leads  me  to  a  brief  episode  to  explain 
the  rough  map  I  have  put  upon  the  blackboard.  Here  I 
have  meant  to  portray  the  long  straight  range  of  the 
Taurus  Mountains  that  run  along  the  northern  side  of 
the  Mediterranean  Sea,  north  of  Cilicia  and  Pamphylia, 
and  run  eastward  until  they  come  to  the  neighborhood 
of  Mount  Ararat  in  Armenia.  Here  is  the  Masius  spur 
of  this  range.  Here  is  the  Zagros  range  running  along 
east  of  the  Tigris  and  Persian  Gulf.  This  Mesopotamian 
plain  has  an  elevation,  perhaps,  at  the  highest  of  not 
more  than  three  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea ; 
but  when  you  get  up  these  mountains,  then  the  great 
plateau  of  Media  and  Persia  runs  far  into  the  desert  in 
Chinese  territory,  and  instead  of  being  only  three  hun- 
dred feet  at  its  highest,  is  three  thousand  feet  above  the 
sea ;  so  that  a  totally  different  climate  and  country  is 
found  east  of  this  broad  range,  or,  rather,  six  ranges. 

West  of  the  Euphrates  you  come  to  the  Arabian  des- 
ert, where  but  few  can  find  subsistence ;  but  between  the 
Arabian  desert  and  the  Zagros  Mountains  you  have  the 
rich  Mesopotamian  Valley,  watered  by  the  twin  rivers, 
the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris,  the  first  running  westerly 
from  Ararat,  and  as  if  about  to  empty  into  the  Mediter- 


HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT.     125 

ranean,  then  suddenly  turning  and  coming  east  until  it 
is  within  twenty-five  miles  of  the  Tigris,  and  then  pass- 
ing out  until  it  is  one  hundred  miles  away  from  the  Ti- 
gris again,  and  then  joining  the  Tigris  and  entering  with 
it  the  Persian  Gulf ;  the  Tigris,  not  so  long  by  four  or 
five  hundred  miles,  starting  only  six  miles  from  the  river 
Euphrates,  and  then  pursuing  a  southeasterly  course  and 
then  a  southerly  course,  until  it  comes  within  twenty-five 
miles  of  the  Euphrates,  then  again  is  found  one  hundred 
miles  from  it,  joins  it  here  and  enters  the  Persian  Gulf. 
Though  the  Tigris  is  the  narrower  river  and  the  shorter, 
it  carries  double  the  amount  of  water  into  the  joint  riv- 
ers that  the  Euphrates  does,  because  the  latter  has  hardly 
any  tributaries.  There  are  two  here,  you  see  ;  and  besides 
that,  from  the  time  the  Chabour  enters  the  Euphrates, 
the  river,  so  to  speak,  slops  over  and  its  water  goes  out 
into  the  desert,  so  that  there  is  much  less  water  in  the 
desert  down  here  than  there  is  three  hundred  or  four 
hundred  miles  farther  north.  I  have  drawn  a  line  here 
to  show  that  there  is  a  difference  between  the  countries 
south  and  the  countries  north.  The  country  south  of 
this  line  is  rich  alluvial.  Three  crops  a  year,  each  bear- 
ing two  or  three  hundred-fold,  are  obtained  in  that  rich- 
est of  all  countries  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  even  richer 
than  the  Nile  valley.  Formerly,  in  historic  periods,  the 
Persian  Gulf  came  up  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  far- 
ther north  than  now,  and  the  two  rivers  entered  by  dif- 
ferent mouths.     These  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles 

have  been  formed  since  historic  periods,  for  Ur  of  the 

11* 


126    HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

Chaldees,  whence  Abraham  came,  was  a  maritime  city 
on  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  is  now  one  hundred  and  twenty 
miles  away.  Now  that  rich  country  we  call  Babylonia, 
or  Chaldea.  The  country  north  of  it,  which  is  a  some- 
what different  formation  and  is  slightly  higher,  is  Assyria, 
and  the  northern  part  of  Assyria  bears  marks  of  volcanic 
action.  This  natural  division  between  Babylonia  and 
Assyria  helps  to  account  for  some  of  the  historic  facts 
connected  with  the  two  countries. 

But  what  was  the  name  of  this  lower  country,  as 
given  by  the  inhabitants  themselves  }  It  was  not  *'  Bab- 
ylonia ;"  it  was  not  even  "  Chaldea,"  although  one  of  the 
tribes  of  men  that  lived  down  here  was  called  in  the  old 
inscriptions,  "  Chald  ;"  but  the  name  of  the  country  was 
Gun-duni.  When  God  placed  Adam  and  Eve  upon  the 
earth  he  placed  them  in  a  country  that  was  called  Gan- 
Eden,  and  that  is  the  Garden  of  Eden,  as  we  translate  it; 
and  Gan-Edcn  is  nothing  but  this  Gun-duni — this  south- 
ern part  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  Valley.  It  was  very 
natural  that  the  Semitic  people,  seeing  the  word  "  Eden," 
should  liken  it  to  their  own  word  Eden,  which  meant 
pleasure,  and  call  it  the  "  Garden  of  Pleasure."  That  is 
the  way  all  nations  do  with  foreign  words ;  they  make 
them  like  their  own.  You  know  just  north  of  London 
there  is  a  village  called  "  Shotover."  That  is  almost  the 
right  name.  The  French,  who  called  it  so,  spelt  it  "Cha- 
teau-vert," which  signifies  the  "  Green-castle  ;"  but  the 
English  called  it  "  Shotover,"  which  was  as  near  as  they 
could  get  it.      So  with  the  Giin-diini  of   this  country. 


HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     127 

which  was  an  Akkad  word.  The  Semitic  people  did  not 
know  what  Gim-dimi  meant,  and  so  they  gave  it  the 
name  of  the  Garden  of  Pleasure,  which  was  a  very  nice 
name  to  give  it.  So  we  have  from  the  very  beginning 
found  among  the  old  remains  the  name  of  the  country 
the  Garden  of  Eden,  and  it  puts  an  end  to  all  the  contest 
as  to  where  that  garden  was.  It  was  not  in  Armenia, 
nor  in  India,  as  some  thought,  but  there  it  was — the 
lower  portion  of  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates. 

Now,  in  the  tenth  chapter  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able personages  we  find  was  Nimrod,  who  was  a  mighty 
hunter  before  the  Lord.  Do  you  find  anything  about 
Nimrod  there  ?  We  find  his  very  name  existing  right 
here  at  Babylon.  At  ancient  Borsippa  there  is  a  hill 
bearing  still  the  name  of  Nimrod.  Up  here,  south  of 
Nineveh  not  many  miles,  where  the  Little  Zab  joins  the 
Tigris,  there  is  a  village  which  is  named  ''  Nim-rud."  So 
Nimrod's  name  continues  there  yet  from  those  old  times 
shortly  after  the  Deluge.  More  than  that,  we  find  that 
the  principal  god  among  the  ancient  Babylonians  was 
Bel-  (or  lord)  Nipnt,  or  Merodach,  for  now  they  are  be- 
lieved to  be  the  same  god.  Bel  means  the  lord,  or  god, 
and  Nipru  is  nothing  but  what  the  Septuagint  transla- 
tors of  the  Bible  called  Nimrod.  They  write  it  this  way : 
''  Nebroth."  His  other  name  is  another  transformation  : 
•'  J/>;W-ach." 

We  have,  then,  in  the  greatest  god  of  Babylon — the 
one  who  was  above  all  others  distinguished,  the  one  that 
through  all  its  history  stood  really  at  the  head  of  the 


128    HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

Pantheon — Nimrod  himself,  the  founder  of  the  Babylo- 
nian monarchy.  And,  what  is  very  curious,  Bel-Mero- 
dach,  or  Bel-Nimrod,  the  great  god  of  Babylon,  is  repre- 
sented always  as  having  four  splendid  hunting-dogs. 
There  is  the  "  mighty  hunter  before  the  Lord."  We  are 
told  in  that  tenth  chapter  that  the  beginning  of  his  king- 
dom was  Babel,  or  Babylon,  Erech,  Akkad,  and  Calneh, 
and  we  find  the  ruins  of  all  those  four  cities  now  ;  and 
after  a  careful  examination  we  find  that  the  very  names 
of  some  of  Nimrod's  successors  of  that  old  Nimrodian 
dynasty  are  still  upon  the  bricks  of  those  old  ruins.  I 
cannot  stop  to  describe  them.  I  have  to  pass  rapidly 
over  them.  Here  is  Babylon,  with  its  wild  ruins,  upon 
the  river  Euphrates  ;  here  is  Erech  ;  here  is  Akkad,  or 
Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  whence  Abraham  came ;  and  here 
is  Calneh,  or  Nipur,  the  same  as  Nipru,  another  Nimrod- 
town  found  in  Nimrod's  old  country.  Out  of  that  land — 
out  of  Babylonia,  out  of  Chaldea,  out  of  Gan-eden — went 
Ashur  and  built  four  cities  :  Nineveh,  the  city  Rehoboth, 
Calah,  and  Resen ;  and  we  find  now  the  ruins  of  Nine- 
veh brought  out  to  view  by  Botta.  Twenty  miles  below 
we  find  Calneh.  We  are  not  sure  but  that  still  farther 
south,  that  which  was  known  in  the  older  periods  by  the 
name  of  Ashur,  is  the  city  Rehoboth.  Now,  what  is  that 
story }  It  is  simply  this,  that  Ashur — that  is  a  Semitic 
race,  for  Ashur  was  the  child  of  Shem — was  driven  out 
of  this  lower  country  by  the  Nimrodian  race,  and  they 
went  north  and  settled  up  here  in  the  northern  part  of 
the  Mesopotamian  valley  and  laid  the  foundations  of  the 


JUSTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT.    129 

Assyrian  kingdom,  which  was  a  Semitic  kingdom,  while 
the  old  Chaldean  was  not,  but  a  Turanian  kingdom. 

Let  me  explain  here,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  are 
not  thoroughly  familiar  with  these  ethnological  terms, 
that  there  are  three,  as  philologists  say,  distinct  races 
upon  the  earth :  the  Aryan,  to  which  we  belong,  and 
which  some  would  consider  to  be  the  descendants  of 
Japheth  ;  then  the  Semitic  race,  including  the  Hebrews 
and  the  Arabs,  the  descendants  of  Shem ;  and  the  Tura- 
nian race,  which  may  be  the  descendants  of  Ham  or  may 
not  be.  But  these  Turanians — not  the  Aryans  nor  the 
Semitic  people,  but  the  other  branch  of  the  races — occu- 
pied the  southern  country ;  and  it  was  the  driving  out  of 
the  Semitic  people  which  is  described  in  those  few  words. 
Ashur  went  out  and  built  those  four  cities  at  the  north; 
and  just  as  we  find  Nimrod  in  the  form  of  Bel-Nipru  or 
Bel-Merodach,  the  great  god  of  Babylonia,  we  find  Ashur 
the  great  god  of  Assyria. 

Another  interesting  fact :  We  find  on  all  the  ancient 
remains  of  this  southern  country,  away  back  2,000  years 
before  Christ,  that  the  kings  are  always  called  the  kings 
of  Sumir  and  Akkad,  and  they  embrace  the  people  of  the 
plains  and  mountains.  The  latter  were  the  people  of  the 
mountains,  and  the  former  of  the  plains.  But  the  name 
of  the  people  of  the  plain,  as  given  in  their  own  lan- 
guage, for  Sumir  is  a  Semitic  word,  was  Kengi.  Now 
Noah  had  a  grandson  whose  name,  if  we  wrote  it  in  Eng- 
lish exactly,  would  be  Kenagan,  or  we  call  him  Canaan, 
but  the  guttural  Ayin  is  in  there  which  corresponds  to 


I30    HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

the  "g"  in  Kenagan.  It  shows  these  people  of  the  plain 
were  old  Canaanites  before,  long  before,  this  land  was 
occupied  by  them.  They  were  the  old  descendants  of 
Ham,  and  that  accounts  for  what  Herodotus  tells  us,  that 
all  these  people  here  on  the  Mediterranean  coast  came 
over  from  the  Persian  Gulf.  So  these  Kenagan  were 
afterwards  driven  out  by  the  Semitic  people,  and  they 
found  their  way  over  here  to  Canaan  and  became  the 
Canaanites  there.  The  word  Kenagan  signifies  "the 
people  of  the  plain,"  or  "■  the  low  country,"  which  would 
not  have  been  the  name  given  to  them  if  Palestine  had 
been  their  first  habitation,  which  is  a  very  high  country. 
So  we  see  from  these  discoveries  where  our  old  friends 
the  Canaanites  came  from.  We  find  also  in  these  re- 
mains long  accounts  of  the  fall  of  man  with  much  detail, 
and  long  accounts  of  the  Deluge.  The  Deluge  is  called 
the  overflowing  flood  of  Na,  and  there  is  Noah.  In  the 
Deluge  we  read  of  the  dove  being  sent  out  upon  the  sev- 
enth day  and  its  returning,  and  of  the  raven  being  sent 
out  and  never  coming  back.  We  find  also  that  the  Sab- 
bath was  regularly  observed.  They  were  Sabbath  peo- 
ple in  old  Babylonia.  Every  seventh  day  was  a  holy  day 
before  their  gods.  All  these  are  interesting  illustrations 
of  Scriptural  truth. 

Now,  if  we  come  down  to  Abraham's  day,  say  2,000 
B.  c,  or  about  that,  we  find  in  the  Bible  a  statement  given 
us  of  a  very  remarkable  raid  made  upon  the  cities  of  the 
plain  by  four  confederate  monarchs,  one  of  whom  was 
Chedorlaomer,  and  he  had  with  him  Amraphel,  king  of 


HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT.     131 

Shinar,  and  Arioch,  king  of  Ellasar,  and  Tidal,  king  of 
Nations  (Goim).  These  were  the  four.  Until  these  dis- 
coveries we  knew  nothing  about  them  except  their  names 
but  now  we  find  it  recorded  that  a  dynasty,  came  down 
from  the  mountains  of  Elam,  conquered  the  whole  plain 
and  made  the  kings  of  the  plain  subject  to  it.  This  was 
the  king  of  Elam,  and  here  on  the  map  you  see  Elam 
lying  here  between  the  mountains  and  the  sea.  The 
king  of  Shinar  was  the  king  of  Northern  Babylonia  ; 
the  king  of  Ellasar  was  the  king  of  Southern  Babylonia ; 
the  king  of  Nations  was  the  king  of  the  wandering  tribes 
here  on  the  skirts  of  the  Arabian  Desert.  These  kings 
formed  just  the  combination  we  should  have  expected  at 
that  time  to  make  that  wonderful  raid  up  there  through 
the  Euphrates  and  down  through  Lebanon  into  Sodom. 
Further  we  find  Chedorlaomer,  or  rather,  one  of  his  fam- 
ily, on  the  records.  We  find  Lagamer  quite  frequently  as 
one  of  the  gods  of  the  nation  and  we  find  Kedor,  in  the 
form  of  Kedor-mabuk,  and  whether  it  is  the  same  as 
Chedorlaomer  we  cannot  tell ;  but  what  is  very  strange 
he  calls  himself  Apda  Mardu,  or  the  Conqueror  of  the 
West ;  and  so  it  may  be  that  this  very  Kedor-mabuk  is 
the  Chedorlaomer  of  whom  we  read  in  Genesis.  We  find 
the  name  of  Arioch,  his  confederate,  or  rather,  an  earlier 
Arioch  on  the  old  clay  tablets  and  the  old  bricks.  Now 
what  is  very  interesting  is  this :  that  the  first  of  these 
Kedors  brings  to  view  a  name  which  historians  have 
been  searching  for  for  centuries,  and  tells  us  something 
which  the  world  has  been  wanting  to  know  for  many 


132     HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

generations.  We  find  that  the  first  of  these  Kedors  that 
came  down  from  the  mountains  and  conquered  the  whole 
of  the  Babylonian  territory  sometime  before  the  day  of 
Abraham,  perhaps  lOO  years,  had  this  name,  "  Kudur 
Nakhunta."  Now  that  is  an  Aryan  word,  and  when  it  is 
translated  into  the  Semitic  language,  "Kudur"  means 
the  seed  or  the  child.  "Nakhunta"  is  the  name  of  the 
goddess  Ishtar  or  Venus.  If  we  translate  the  first  into 
the  Semitic,  we  have  "  Ziru,"  which  means  the  seed,  and 
the  second  Ishtar  ;  so  we  have  Ziru-Ishtar,  which  we  gen- 
erally write  in  English,  "  Zoroaster."  And  so  the  first  of 
those  princes  that  came  down  into  Babylonia  was  the  old 
Zoroaster,  the  founder  of  the  Zoroastrian  religion,  which 
was  the  religion  of  the  Persians  and  Medes,  who  came 
down  1,500  years  later,  and  took  possession  of  the  Mes- 
opotamian  plain. 

From  this  period  we  hear  nothing  more  in  the  Bible 
of  this  Mesopotamian  country  until  1,200  years  later, 
when  the  kings  of  Israel  are  brought  into  contact  with 
the  later  kings  of  Assyria  ;  but  meanwhile  we  have  men- 
tion made  of  Egypt  in  the  time  of  the  Egyptian  bond- 
age. I  will  not  dwell  long  on  that  Egyptian  matter.  I 
will  just  say  that  there  are  some  names  on  which  much 
light  is  shed  by  the  knowledge  we  have  lately  obtained 
from  Egypt  by  logical  research.  For  example,  how  often 
we  have  wondered  in  our  childhood,  and  perhaps  when 
we  grew  older,  at  that  strange  name  that  Pharaoh  or  the 
people  of  Egypt  gave  to  Joseph,  which  certainly  was  not 
as  musical  or  easy  to  pronounce  as  the  name  that  Rach- 


HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT.     133 

el  gave  him — "Zaphnath  paaneah  ;"  and  yet,  when  you 
come  to  translate  that  name,  as  we  are  now  able  to  do 
with  perfect  safety,  see  what  a  beautiful  name  they  gave 
him:  "  Zaf-nt-p-anch "  is  the  name.  "Zaf"  meant 
"bread;"  "nt"  meant  "of;"  "p"  is  the  article  "the," 
and  the  last,  "  anch,"  means  life  ;  and  so  Joseph  was 
called  "  the  bread  of  life."     [Applause.] 

Moses'  name  in  the  Hebrew  is  "  Mosheh,"  but  now 
there  -is  a  Hebrew  word  "  Mashah  "  of  which  "  Mosheh  " 
is  the  active  participle,  which  means  to  draw  out ;  and  so 
when  we  read  in  the  Scriptures  about  the  birth  of  Moses 
and  the  name  given  to  him  by  Pharaoh's  daughter  the 
skeptics  had  a  grand  occasion  to  find  fault  with  the 
science  of  the  Bible.  Thus  it  is  :  "  And  she  called  his  name 
Mosheh,  and  she  said,  Because  I  vioshah  him  out  of  the 
water" — that  is,  "  I  drew  him  out  of  the  water,"  and  they 
say,  "That  is  a  made-up  thing  because  mosheh  is  the 
active  participle  and  could  not  mean  'drawn  out'  but 
*  drawing  out,'  and  is  not  the  passive  participle  *  drawn 
out ' }  She  would  take  the  passive  participle  only  and 
not  say  mosheh.  It  is  a  clumsy  affair  altogether,  and 
shows  how  full  of  errors  the  Bible  is." 

Well  we  went  to  work,  then,  and  said  the  Bible  was 

not  meant  to  teach  us  science,  but  only  religion.     Since 

then,  however,  we  have  learned  something  more.     We 

have  discovered  that  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh  did  not 

give  her  son  a  Hebrew  name  at  all.     She  very  naturally 

gave  her  son  an  Egyptian  name,  and  we  find  an  Egyptian 

.word,  the  passive  participle  of  which  is  "Mosu,"  and 

12 


T34    HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

that  was  the  name  given  to  Moses.  Mosu  means  two 
things — first, '  drawn  out,'  but  it  secondly  means  '  brought 
forth'  and  is  the  name  given  to  a  child  ;  and  so  Pharaoh's 
daughter,  wanting  to  call  this  her  child,  although  it  was 
not  her  own  child  and  she  could  not  designate  it  in  the 
sense  of  the  word  'brought  forth,'  could  call  it  in  the 
other  sense  of  the  word  'drawn  out'  because  it  was  drawn 
out ;  and  she  said,  "  I  drew  him  out  of  the  water  and 
have  a  right  to  call  him  that,  although  it  is  the  common 
name  to  give  to  one's  own  child."  And  so  there  was  a  sort 
of  pun  in  the  thing,  but  the  Egyptian  language  gives  us 
exactly  the  original  name. 

So  with  Moses'  son,  who  was  called  "  Ger-shom," 
"Ger"  means  ''a  stranger"  and  "shom"  means  "there," 
and  "  Gershom,"  which  is  "  a  stranger  there,"  was  a  very 
harsh  compound  and  no  Hebrew  would  have  thought  of 
giving  his  child  that  name  when  the  interpretation  is  "  I 
am  a  stranger  in  a  strange  land."  He  never  would  have 
called  him  "a  stranger  there."  But  now  we  find  that 
Moses  gave  his  son  an  Egyptian  name,  and  "  Ger"  means 
"stranger"  and  "shom"  "a  strange  land;"  and  so  it  is 
just  what  it  is  called  in  the  Bible,  "  a  stranger  in  a  strange 
land."  One  other  of  these  words  and  I  will  go  to  the 
later  history  of  Assyria.  When  Joseph  was  made  grand 
vizier  and  the  robes  and  grandeur  of  the  vizier's  office 
were  put  upon  him,  one  went  before  and  called  out  to  the 
people  as  he  rode  through  the  streets  of  the  city,  as  it  is 
in  our  version,  "  Bow  the  knee  !"  Now  the  Hebrew  word 
is  "  Abrech,"  and  nobody  knew  exactly  what  it  did  mean, 


HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     135 

and  some  thought  it  was  from  the  words  meaning  '*  ten- 
der father,"  but  the  truth  is,  it  is  not  a  Hebrew  word  at 
all,  but  it  is  the  imperative  of  the  Egyptian  word  "  to  re- 
joice." So  they  went  ahead  of  Joseph's  chariot,  crying^ 
"  Rejoice  !     Rejoice  !     Here  is  the  bread  of  life  !" 

What  is  a  very  remarkable  thing  is  this,  that  from  the 
time  of  Moses  to  the  time  of  Rehoboam,  500  years,  or 
from  147 1  to  971,  we  find  that  Egypt  did  not  in  any  way 
trouble  the  children  of  Israel,  and  yet,  after  the  time  of 
Moses,  some  of  the  most  powerful  of  Egypt's  monarchs 
were  reigning.  Now  what  is  the  reason  of  this,  when 
such  remarkable  monarchs  as  Thothmes  3d  and  Ame- 
noph  2d,  etc.,  were  extending  their  sway  all  over  the  east- 
ern world  and  making  conquests  even  here  in  Assyria } 
Why  is  it  that  little  Palestine  was  not  harmed,  and  that 
we  see  nothing  about  that  at  all  in  the  records  of  God's 
holy  people  1  The  answer  is  found,  in  the  first  place,  in 
the  fact  that  it  was  Assyria  that  was  the  great  adversary 
of  Egypt,  and  it  was  against  Assyria  that  they  directed 
all  their  energies  when  they  came  eastward  ;  and  more 
than  this,  we  are  let  into  the  secret  by  a  little  passage  in 
I  Chron.  4:  17,  where  we  find  that  the  son  of  Ezra  mar- 
ried Bithiah,  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh.  So  Pharaoh  mar- 
ried his  daughter  into  that  noble  house  of  Caleb,  the 
Northumberland  House  of  Palestine,  and  we  find  that 
Amenoph  the  3d,  one  of  these  magnificent  monarchs 
after  the  Exodus,  married  a  Jewess.  We  see  from  these 
facts,  that  there  was  a  close  amity  between  Egypt  and 
Palestine  through  all  that  period  of  Judges,  and  it  was 


136     HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

good  policy  for  Egypt  to  keep  Palestine  its  friend  as  a 
natural  barrier  to  prevent  any  raids  from  the  East  down 
into  Egypt.  Now,  the  last  200  years  of  that  500  years 
it  is  interesting  to  find  in  the  records  of  Egypt  and  As- 
syria, (for  Babylonia  had  been  crushed  and  brought  into 
subjection  to  Assyria,)  that  very  weak  princes  sat  upon 
the  throne  and  those  two  empires  were  very  much 
depressed  ;  as  if  God  had  purposed  it  so,  so  that  this 
Israelitish  Empire  could  rise  under  David  and  Solomon, 
and  under  Solomon  it  was  far  superior  in  wealth,  power, 
and  fame  to  those  old  monarchies  of  Assyria  and  of 
Egypt.  Now,  the  first  notice  we  have  of  the  successors 
of  David  and  Solomon  upon  the  throne  of  Israel  in  these 
Oriental  records  is  the  name  of  Ahab,  that  good  husband 
of  the  good  Jezebel,  and  we  find  that  Shalmaneser  the 
2d,  in  his  story,  tells  us  that  Ahab,  king  of  Israel* 
joined  with  Benhadad  the  king  of  Damascus  and  four 
others,  and  made  a  confederacy,  and  Shalmaneser  went 
over  with  his  troops  and  crushed  him.  And  further  on  in 
these  records  we  find  the  same  Shalmaneser  a  few  years 
after  coming  over  and  making  the  monarch  of  Israel  pay 
him  tribute.  We  find  the  monarch's  name  was  Jehu,  and 
so  we  have  Ahab  and  Jehu,  and  their  story  is  told  us  by 
the  old  records  dug  up  at  Nineveh.  In  the  account  in 
the  Kings  of  the  reign  of  Amaziah  it  is  said  that  his 
kingdom  was  confirmed,  which  is  a  phrase  only  used 
when  a  kingdom  is  tributary  to  another  kingdom ;  and 
that  shows  that  Amaziah,  king  of  Judah,  was  under  the 
orders  of  the  king  of  Assyria  about  that  time. 


HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT.     137 

Now  a  little  later  in  the  year  770,  b.  c.  we  find  the  first 
Assyrian  monarch  mentioned  by  name.     He  comes  as 
Pal,  and  he  fights  against  Menahem,  and  brings  him  into 
tribute  to  Assyria.    Now,  Pul  is  identified  with  a  monarch 
whos3  name  is  found  on  the  records  very  often,  and  his 
name  is  Vul  lush,  and  the  most  remarkable  thing  about 
him  in  history  is  that  his  wife  is  the  only  woman  whose 
name  is  found  in  all  these  multitudinous  records  of  As- 
syria and  Babylon.     Wherever  Vul  lush's  name  is  put, 
this  name  of  his  wife  is  put  with  him,  and  her  name  was 
Semiramis.     Babylonia   was   a  restless  province,  all  the 
while  rebelling,  and  Pul  married  her  and  had  her  name 
put  with   his   on  the  public   records.      Then   after   Pul 
come^  ig  lath  Pileser,  and  he,  you  know,  at  the  invitation 
of  Ahaz,   comes  over  and   conquers   Syria.     After  him 
comes  Shalmanezer  and  fights  against  Hoshea,  the  last 
king  of  Israel,  and  now  we  see  that  Shalmanezer  besieged 
Samaria  and  in  the  third  year  he  took  it.     Shalmanezer 
is  not  said  to  take  it,  but  in  the  third  year  "  the  king  of 
Assyria  "  took  it,  and  we  find  in  that  very  year  Shalma- 
nezer was  succeeded  by  a  usurper  called  Sargon.      And 
that  is  the  reason  why  the  Bible  is  so  exact  and  says  not 
Shalmanezer  but  the  "  king  of  Assyria"  took  it.     We  find 
at  the  same  time  that  Hoshea  tried  to  get  help  from  the 
Egyptian  king,  and  his  name  we  find  upon  the  Egyptian 
records  with  all  he   did.     Now  a  very  curious  thing  is 
found.     When  the  people  of   Northern    Palestine  were 
taken    away   by  the    Assyrian    king    and    put    away   up 
this  river  Chabor,  he  put  a  large  number  of  people  from 

12* 


138     HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

Babylonia  in  their  place.  Why  did  he  take  them  from 
Babylonia  ?  Simply  because  it  was  such  a  troublesome 
province.  It  remembered  that  it  was  an  empire  long  be- 
fore Assyria  was,  and  so  there  was  a  constant  insurrec- 
tion, almost,  in  Babylonia.  He  took,  therefore,  a  large 
number  of  people  from  Babylonia,  those  that  were  most 
troublesome,  and  put  them  in  the  place  of  the  Israelites 
whom  he  placed  over  in  Assyria.  Many  thousands,  it 
says,  of  the  people  of  Babylon  whom  he  put  over  there 
worship  a  goddess  whom  they  called  Succoth-benoth. 
These  are  two  Hebrew  names  and  mean  the  Booths  of 
the  daughters.  The  goddess  they  worship  was  the  great 
goddess  of  Babylon,  Zir-banit.  They  have  written  it 
Succoth-benoth.  We  see  how  they  made  the  second 
mistake,  but  how  Zir  became  Succoth  is  more  difficult  to 
comprehend.  Zir  means  "  lady  "  and  Zar  means  "  booths." 
They  thought  it  was  Zar,  and  translated  it  *'  booths,"  while 
the  real  name  is  "  Lady  Creator."  She  was  the  wife  of 
Nimrod,  and  her  name  was  Zir-banit,  or  the  deity  which 
these  Babylonians  worshipped  in  Palestine  when  the 
kingdom  of  the  north  was  destroyed. 

Those  names  which  occur  at  that  time  in  the  sacred 
record  are  not  names  of  individuals,  but  of  offices.  Tar- 
tan was  generalissimo  ;  Rab-saris  was  the  first  eunuch  ; 
Rab-shakeh  was  the  chief  cup-bearer ;  Rab-mag  was  the 
chief  priest ;  and  so  we  are  to  translate  those  words. 

Now,  we  come  to  Hezekiah's  day.  We  find  him,  in 
the  first  place,  making  favor  with  Merodach-baladan,  the 
king  cf  Babylon,  and  we  find  from  the  record  of  that  day 


HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     139 

that  Merodach  Baladan  rose  up  against  the  Assyrian  pow- 
er, threw  off  the  yoke,  called  upon  his  countrymen  in  the 
name  of  their  old  glory  and  reestablished  the  Babylonian 
power.  Hezekiah  thinks  now,  "This  is  a  nice  thing  for 
me  ;  I  will  play  Babylon  against  Assyria.  I  am  threatened 
by  Sargon,  the  king  of  Assyria,  and  I  will  ally  myself 
with  Merodach  Baladan."  So  they  engage  in  friendship; 
but  it  turns  out  a  very  poor  speculation,  for  you  know 
soon  after  Sennacherib,  Sargon's  son,  came  and  attacked 
Hezekiah  ;  and  the  Bible  says  he  took  all  the  fenced 
cities  of  Hezekiah  and  shut  up  Hezekiah  himself  and 
made  him  pay  a  tribute  of  thirty  talents  of  gold  and  three 
hundred  talents  of  silver.  But  hear  Sennacherib's  own 
account.     He  says  : 

"  In  the  course  of  my  expedition  I  captured  and  sub- 
dued the  spoil  of  his  cities.  Hezekiah,  king  of  Judah,  did 
not  submit  to  my  yoke.  Forty-six  of  his  cities,  strong 
fortresses,  and  cities  of  their  territory  which  were  with- 
out number,  I  besieged,  I  captured  and  plundered  as 
spoil.  Hezekiah  himself  I  made  as  a  caged  bird  in  the 
city  of  Jerusalem.  In  addition  to  previous  taxes  I  im.. 
posed  upon  them  a  donation. 

*'The  fear  of  the  approach  of  my  majesty  overwhelmed 
him  and  his  own  soldiers  whom  he  had  caused  to  enter 
Jerusalem.  He  consented  to  the  payment  of  tribute — 
thirty  talents  of  gold  ;  eight  hundred  talents  of  silver." 

There  is  a  difference  there  between  800  and  300,  but 
how  remarkable  this  story  is !  And  then  he  goes  on  to 
say   how  he  overthrew  Merodach  Baladan,  the  friend  of 


140     HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

Hezekiah.  Also  on  the  second  expedition  when  he  was 
down  here  at  Libnah  he  sent  Rabshakeh  to  shake  his 
fists  at  Hezekiah.  You  will  remember  the  king  of  Ethio- 
pia was  coming  against  him,  and  he  said,  "  Tell  Hezekiah 
not  to  trust  to  these  Egyptians."  We  find  now  two 
Egyptian  kings.  So  or  Sabaco  is  mentioned  by  name  and 
Pharaoh.  In  the  book  of  Isaiah  these  words  of  Sennach- 
erib are  written  "  Do  n't  you,  Hezekiah,  think  Pharaoh 
is  going  to  do  you  any  good.  He  is  a  broken  reed  that 
will  pierce  the  hand  that  leans  upon  it  ;"  and  we  find  that 
Pharaoh  Sethos  and  others  of  that  dynasty  had  a  broken 
rred  as  their  emblem,  so  that  you  see  what  a  beautiful 
allusion  that  is,  and  what  a  remarkably  neat  historic 
coincidence  is  presented  by  it.  Sennacherib  says  :  "  This 
Pharaoh  has  a  broken  reed  as  his  emblem.  He  is  noth- 
ing but  a  broken  reed,  and  you,  Hezekiah,  had  better  not 
trust  him."  And  what  is  very  curious  is  that  when 
Rabshakeh  begins  to  talk  to  them  on  the  wall  the  Jews 
cry  out :  "  Do  n't  talk  in  the  Jewish  language.  Talk  in 
the  Syrian  language  1"  Why  Syrian  }  Why  not  Assy- 
rian }  Now  we  find,  since  the  Assyrian  language  has 
been  disentombed  and  explained,  that  the  Assyrian  lan- 
guage is  the  old  Aramean.  The  Aramean  language  was 
the  old  original  language  of  Assyria.  Another  curious 
thing  occurred  after  that,  when  Manasseh  was  carried  cap- 
tive to  Babylon.  Manasseh  was  the  son  of  Hezekiah  and 
it  was  a  pity  that  when  Hezekiah  was  advised  of  his  own 
coming  death  he  should  have  obtained  a  respite  and  had 
fifteen  years  added  to  his  life  by  the  Lord.     He  had  bet- 


HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT.    141 

ter  have  died,  for  Manasseh  was  born  in  that  fifteen 
years  and  became  a  scourge,  but  when  Manasseh  was 
carried  captive  to  Babylon,  what  a  mistake  the  sacred 
writer  made  there!  The  idea  of  the  king  of  Assyria, 
who  reigned  at  Nineveh,  carrying  his  captives  to  Baby- 
lon !  It  is  absurd,  and  you  will  find  fifty  commentators 
who  will  tell  you  it  is  absurd.  The  idea  of  an  Assyrian 
prince  carrying  his  captives  to  Babylon  !  He  ought  to 
have  carried  them  to  Nineveh.  Undoubtedly  he  ought. 
Within  the  last  few  years  we  find  the  whole  story  of 
Esar-haddon's  life  written  by  himself,  and  he  tells  us 
that  when  his  father  Sennacherib  died,  Babylon  was  in 
such  a  ferment  that  he  felt  it  a  necessity  just  to  go  down 
there  and  live  among  them ;  and  so,  besides  his  palace 
at  Nineveh  he  built  a  palace  at  Babylon  and  made  it  his 
headquarters  during  all  his  reign.  Now  we  see  why 
Manasseh  was  carried  there.  It  was  just  for  that  reign, 
not  before  and  not  afterwards,  that  the  king  was  to  be 
found  at  Babylon. 

I  had  a  good  many  other  allusions  to  make,  but  I  will 
rapidly  close  with  mentioning  two  or  three.  We  find  the 
son  of  Esar-haddon — Asshur-bani-pal,  the  original  of  the 
name  Sardanapalus— reigning  forty  years  with  wonderful 
power  in  Assyria,  although  it  was  the  flaming  up  of  the 
light  in  the  socket,  for  his  son  only  reigned  one  year,  and 
was  the  real  one  that  was  burned  up  in  the  palace  with 
his  wife.  Sardanapalus  did  not  die  that  way,  but  it  was 
his  son,  whose  tragic  death  is  given  in  the  story  of  Sar- 
danapalus.    Sardanapalus  had  a  brother  that  he  put  in 


T42    HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

his  father,  Esar-haddon's,  place  in  Babylon.  He  did  not 
want  Babylon  out  of  the  control  of  the  royal  family,  so 
he  reigned  in  Nineveh,  and  let  his  brother,  whose  name 
was  Saul-mugina,  reign  in  Babylon.  Saul-mugina  took 
up  the  cause  of  the  Babylonians  and  revolted  against 
his  brother,  and  a  fearful  conflict  took  place,  which  re- 
sulted in  a  victory  for  Sardanapalus.  And  what  did  he 
do  .'^  He  heated  2^  fiery  furnace  and  burned  his  brother 
up  there.  He  put  his  chief  generals  into  a  den  of  lions  ; 
and  there  you  have,  one  hundred  years  before  the  time 
of  Daniel,  just  those  punishments,  in  vogue  which  you 
find  in  the  Book  of  Daniel,  and  against  which  infidels 
have  again  and  again  turned  their  bitter  scorn  as  incon- 
sistent with  true  history. 

In  Nebuchadnezzar's  day,  when  the  Assyrian  empire 
was  overthrown,  and  the  Babylonish  empire  reinstated — 
and  it  was  a  glorious  reign  of  forty  years — we  find  in  the 
record  he  gives  of  his  own  reign  this  remarkably  entry. 
After  giving  an  account  of  the  magnificent  palaces  he 
built,  and  the  hanging  gardens  and  the  walls — and  no 
wonder  his  nature  was  proud  :  there  has  never  been  a 
monarch  like  him  on  the  face  of  the  earth — we  find  this 
strange  record.  He  suddenly  says  :  "  And  now  I  took 
no  pleasure  in  building.  I  took  no  pleasure  in  the  tem- 
ples. I  took  no  pleasure  in  walking  or  in  riding.  I  took 
no  pleasure  in  anything  for  a  term  of  years ;"  and  then 
he  goes  on  with  what  he  did  afterwards.  What  was  that.'* 
Why,  it  was  the  seven  years  when  he  was  like  a  beast 
upon  the  earth  and  ate  grass  like  an  ox ;  and  that  is  the 


JIISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 


143 


way  Nebuchadnezzar  refers  to  it  in  that  rather  delicate 
manner  in  his  own  record. 

Now  after  these  empires— the  old  Babylonian  lasting 
until  1,300  years  before  Christ,  and  the  Assyrian  to  about 
625  before  Christ,  and  then  the  new  Babylonian  of  Neb- 
^uchadnezzar  s,  which  only  lasted  eighty  years — we  come 
down  to  the  sixth  century  before  Christ,  and  then  we 
find  these  mountaineers  coming  down  from  their  moun- 
tains and  sweeping  over  the  country  and  taking  posses- 
sion of  all ;  and  Cyrus  is  their  leader,  or,  rather,  they 
have  two  leaders.     One  is  Darius,  and  the  other  is  Cy- 
rus ;  Darius,  or  Astyages,  an  old  man,  and  Cyrus,  a  young 
man.     They  come  and  sweep  over  that  empire  of  1,500 
years'  duration,  and  they  find  in  the  midst  of  it  a  people 
by  millions  called  Israel.     They  make  them  a  grand  ex- 
ception   to   their  work    of    extermination.      They  treat 
them  with  favor  and  load  them  with  riches  and  blessings. 
They  send  back  all  of  them  that  want  to  go  to  Jerusalem 
with  a  grand  army  escort.     Why  all  this  honor  upon  the 
poor  captive  Jews  >   These  were  the  people  that  believed 
in  the  old  Zoroastrian  creed — that  there  was  but  one 
God.     They  hated  polytheism  ;  they  allowed  no  statues 
or  pictures  of  gods.     Only  one   God  they  worshipped. 
These  mountaineers  came  down  to  exterminate  the  pa- 
gans, and  they  were  charmed  when  they  found  in  their 
midst  a  people  that,  like  them,  worshipped  one  true"  God. 
They  were  friends  of  the  Jews.    God  raised  up  these  peo- 
ple to  come  down  and  send  his  people  back  to  their  own 
land.     These  were  the  Persians.     It  is  very  true  that 


144    HISTORY  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

there  was  a  ritualistic  wing  of  the  Persians  that  tried  to 
take  away  the  old  Zoroastrian  creed,  and  did  succeed  a 
little.  For  example :  after  Cyrus  had  died  and  his  son 
Cambyses  had  died,  these  ritualistic  Medes  gained  the 
throne,  and  as  soon  as  they  gained  the  throne  they  stop- 
ped the  building  of  Jerusalem.  That  we  find  recorded 
in  the  Book  of  Ezra.  They  had  not  a  love  for  the  Jews 
like  the  real  true  Persians  ;  but  as  soon  as  the  Magians 
were  set  aside,  and  after  a  civil  war  of  some  years,  Darius 
became  a  king  of  Persia,  and  he  sent  word  to  the  Jews  to 
go  on  with  the  building  of  the  city,  and  renewed  his  in- 
terest in  them  that  his  great  predecessor,  Cyrus  the 
Great,  had. 

My  friends,  I  have  given  you  thus  far  a  very  desul- 
tory story.  I  have  tried  to  leave  out  details  that  would 
be  uninteresting  except  to  those  that  are  constantly 
studying  details ;  and  perhaps  there  has  not  been  the 
connection  that  there  ought  to  have  been  in  an  historic 
lecture,  but  I  have  thrown  out  such  facts  as  may  lead 
you  to  further  study,  and  confirm  to  your  hearts  the  glo- 
rious truth  of  the  Scripture  of  God. 


THE 


Adaptation  of  the  Bible, 


TO  THE 


UNIVERSAL  NEEDS  OF  THE  SOUL, 


WITNESS  OF  CHRISTIAN  MEN 


DIVINE  AUTHORITY  AND  POWER. 


ROBERT  RUSSELL  BOOTH,  D.  Z>., 

PASTOR  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  PLACE  CHURCH,  NEW  YORK. 


13 


THE 


Bible  and  Man's  Needs; 

Testimonies  to  its  Power. 


The  subject  proposed  as  our  theme,  at  this  point  in 
the  course,  is  in  importance  second  to  no  other,  and  in 
some  respects  might  well  claim  the  precedence.  After 
we  have  established  to  our  satisfaction  the  authority,  the 
inspiration,  and  the  oneness  of  the  Bible,  as  revealing 
redemption  ;  after  we  have  studied  the  languages  in  whicli 
it  is  written,  and  have  scrutinized  the  facts  of  ancient 
history  which  correspond  to  its  statements,  the  question 
of  its  adaptation  still  remains  to  be  tried.  Is  it  a  vol- 
ume which  meets  man's  necessities,  and  which  can  ac- 
complish the  work  in  him  and  for  him,  which  a  Divine 
revelation  must  be  presumed  to  intend.'*  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  it  will  generally  be  found  true  that  there  is  more 
conviction  and  power  in  this  line  of  argument  than  in  any 
other.  There  are  many  questions  which  common  minds 
cannot  find  time  to  investigate,  many  lines  of  argument  of 
which  they  cannot  remember  the  successive  steps  ;  but 
whenever  the  fact  of  an  adaptation  on  the  part  of  the 


148  THE  BIBLE  AND  AIAN' S  NEEDS; 

Bible  to  personal  need  is  brought  home  to  the  conscious- 
ness, there  is  a  sense  of  conviction  which  is  established 
on  immovable  ground,  and  which  justifies  one  in  saying, 
concerning  the  Bible,  what  the  blind  man  said  of  Christ 
to  the  Pharisees  :  "  Whether  he  be  a  sinner  or  no,  I  know 
not  ;  one  thing  I  know :  that,  whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I 
see."  It  may  be  fairly  asked,  therefore,  whether  the 
highest  kind  of  proof  which  can  be  adduced  to  support 
the  claims  of  God's  word  is  not  that  which  is  derived 
from  its  "  adaptation  to  the  universal  needs  of  the  soul." 
When  you  find  a  key  fitting  exactly  to  the  wards  of  an  in- 
tricate lock ;  when  you  find  the  clew  to  an  otherwise  un- 
solvable  puzzle;  when  you  find  the  lever  which  at' a  touch 
starts  the  motions  of  some  vast  piece  of  machinery,  you 
have  found  enough  to  satisfy  you  that  the  connection  in- 
volves the  clearest  proof  of  design  and  intended  adjust- 
ment. Thus  the  truth  of  the  Bible,  to  the  inner  sense  of 
the  soul,  the  consciousness  that  it  is  the  source  of  light,  of 
comfort  and  life,  is  a  power  against  which  the  doubts  of  the 
skeptic  and  the  arguments  of  the  infidel  make  no  head- 
way whatever.  We  may  illustrate  the  value  of  this  kind  of 
proof  by  that  remarkable  statement  of  the  grounds  of  his 
belief  in  Christianity  which  Mr.  Coleridge  has  given  in  the 
Biographia  Literaria :  "  Its  consistency  with  right  reason 
I  consider  as  the  outer  court  of  the  temple,  the  common 
area  within  which  it  stands.  The  miracles  with  and 
through  which  the  religion  was  first  revealed  and  attested 
I  regard  as  the  steps,  the  vestibule  and  the  portal  of  the 
temple.     The  sense,  the  inward  feeling  in   the  soul  of 


TESTIMONIES  TO  ITS  POWER.  149 

each  believer  of  its  exceeding  desirableness,  the  experi- 
ence that  he  needs  something,  joined  with  the  strong 
foreboding  that  the  redemption  and  the  grace  propound- 
ed to  us  in  Christ,  are  what  he  needs — this  I  hold  to  be 
the  true  foundation  of  the  spiritual  edifice.  But  it  is  the 
experience  derived  from  a  practical  conformity  to  the 
conditions  of  the  gospel ;  it  is  the  opening  eye,  the  dawn- 
ing light,  the  terrors  and  the  promises  of  spiritual  growth, 
the  blessedness  of  loving  God  as  God,  the  nascent  sense 
of  sin  hated  as  sin,  and  of  the  incapability  of  attaining 
either  without  Christ ;  it  is  the  sorrow  which  still  rises 
up  from  beneath,  and  the  consolation  that  meets  it  from 
above ;  in  a  word,  it  is  the  actual  trial  of  the  faith  in 
Christ,  with  its  accompaniments  and  results,  that  must 
form  the  arched  roof,  and  faith  itself  is  the  completing 
keystone." 

Now  it  is  precisely  to  this  test  of  experience  that  we 
are  led  when  we  consider  the  Bible  in  the  light  of  its 
adaptation  to  the  universal  needs  of  the  soul.  Does  it 
meet  the  demand  made  upon  it  by  our  complex  nature  } 
Is  it  the  source  of  truth  for  the  mind,  of  peace  for  the 
conscience,  of  light  for  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death } 
Does  it  lay  hold  of  man's  fallen  nature  with  power  to  lift 
him  out  of  the  defilement  of  sin  and  raise  him  into  the 
presence  of  God  1  Does  man  find,  when  he  comes  to  this 
book  in  the  attitude  of  an  inquirer  and  learner,  that  it 
answers  his  deepest  questions,  enlightens  his  darkest 
hours,  and  puts  a  new  joy  into  his  heart  t  If  this  is  its 
influence,  if  it  is  thus  "adapted"  to  the  needs  of  his  soul, 

13* 


ISO 


THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN'S  NEEDS, 


he  has  solid  and  unimpeachable  ground  for  his  conviction 
that  God  is  its  author,  and  that  in  obeying  its  precepts  he 
is  walking  in  a  road  which  is  the  way  of  life  everlasting. 
To  confirm  you  in  that  confidence,  I  am  to  place  be- 
fore you  this  evening  the  leading  features  of  this  adapta- 
tion. And  for  the  purpose  of  centralizing  our  thought  on 
this  great  theme,  we  may  fix  upon  an  expression  found 
in  the  Bible  itself,  an  expression  employed  by  St.  Paul  to 
set  forth  the  very  point  we  are  about  to  consider.  In  the 
fourth  verse  of  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  he  makes  use  of  this  phrase  to  declare  the  value 
and  power  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  :  "For  what- 
soever things  were  written  aforetime  were  written  for  our 
learning,  that  we  through  patience  and  comfort  of  the 
Scriptures  might  have  hope.''  Taking  this  inspired  word 
of  the  apostle  as  the  equivalent  of  the  subject  before  us, 
let  us  consider  those  characteristics  of  the  word  of  God 
which  enable  it  to  become  a  comfort  to  the  souls  of  men, 
and  thereby  to  impart  the  consolations  of  a  hope  which 
maketh  not  ashamed.  The  fitness  of  this  phase  of  the 
apostle  to  our  present  theme  becomes  the  more  apparent 
when  we  observe  that,  in  the  original,  the  teaching  and 
assistance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  are  essentially  connected 
with  his  meaning.  He  uses  the  genitive  case  of  the  word 
paraklesisy  which  in  New  Testament  Greek  carries  with 
it,  almost  without  exception,  a  reference  to  the  agency 
and  presence  of  the  blessed  Comforter,  "the  Paraclete" 
whose  office-work  it  is  to  lead  men  into  the  knowledge 
of  the  truth  in  Jesus.     In  this  sense,  then,  "  the  comfort 


.      TESTIMONIES  TO  ITS  POWER.  151 

of  the  Scriptures"  is  their  adaptation,  under  the  minis- 
trations of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  the  several  faculties  and 
varied  needs  of  the  soul,  as  the  result  of  which  the  light 
of  hope  shines  bright  and  strong  upon  man's  earthly 
pathway. 

As  a  preliminary  to  the  question  thus  stated,  we  should 
naturally  ask,  "What  are  the  universal  needs  of  the 
soul  ?■'  Without  covering  a  field  so  extensive  as  this,  may 
it  not  suffice  for  us  to  say  that,  first  of  all,  the  soul  needs 
to  find,  in  any  system  or  word  which  addresses  it,  tJie  ev- 
idence of  aiitJiority,  so  that  it  can  rest  on  its  revelations 
with  confidence.  Following  this,  it  seems  clear  that  the 
soul  needs  to  find  in  the  revelation  itself  such  substance 
and  point  as  shall  provide  for  it  a  resc?ce  from  that  curse 
of  sin  which  man  in  all  ages  has  felt  to  be  his  sorest  ca- 
lamity. But  it  must  also  be  recognized  as  a  need  of  the 
soul,  that  the  revelation  presented  should  be  adapted  to 
individual  men  in  their  various  phases  of  character  and  in 
the  manifold  conditions  of  tJicir  eartJily  lot.  And  finally, 
it  should  be  able  to  afford  a  support  and  a  light  when 
they  pass,  as  all  men  must  pass,  from  these  scenes  of 
time  into  the  presence  of  the  eternal  realities. 

In  the  line  of  these  widely-recognized  needs  of  the 
soul,  let  us  seek  the  adaptation  which  may  commend  the 
word  of  God  to  our  souls. 

First,  the  solid  basis  of  "  the  comfort  of  the  Scriptures  " 
is  the  clear  and  sufficient  evidence  of  tJieir  Divine  author- 
ity as  the  only  and  final  revelation  of  the  luill  of  God  to 
man,   "  The  word  of  the  Lord  is  tried,"  wrote  the  Psalmist. 


152  THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN'S  NEEDS; 

In  view  of  the  careful  scrutiny,  the  long-continued  inves- 
tigation, the  accumulated  experience,  which  has  attended 
the  history  of  that  word  from  David's  time  till  ours,  we 
may  connect  our  confident  assertion  with  his  inspired 
testimony,  and  say  with  the  deepest  emphasis  of  an  as- 
sured conviction,  "Yea,  it  is  tried  and  proved."  This 
fact  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  comforting  and  hope- 
inspiring  influence  of  the  Holy  Scripture,  for  without 
this  they  could  not  speak  to  man  with  the  authority  of 
God.  However  valuable  they  might  be  as  records  of  the 
remotest  history  of  the  human  race,  however  interesting 
in  their  narratives  of  personal  experience,  however  grand 
and  inspiring  in  their  sublimity  of  sentiment  and  prom- 
ise, the  essential  feature,  "  the  one  thing  needful,"  would 
be  lacking,  unless  we  could  turn  to  them  with  the  assu- 
rance that  they  contain  a  special  revelation  from  the  God 
that  made  us,  and  are  "  able  to  make  us  wise  unto  salva- 
tion." 

But  what  are  the  grounds  of  this  assurance }  Can 
we  forget  that  there  are  many  eminent  in  scholarship, 
exalted  in  position,  affluent  in  attainments,  who  join  issue 
with  us  at  this  point,  and  while  conceding  antiquity, 
sublimity,  and  moral  power  in  an  unusual  degree,  do  still 
refuse  to  unite  in  the  confession  that  the  Scriptures  are 
the  special  word  of  God  to  man }  Certainly  no  one  who 
reads  or  listens  in  these  days  can  be  ignorant  that  the 
old  conflict  is  still  carried  on  around  this  citadel  of  faith 
and  hope,  and  that  peculiar  and  startling  methods  of  as- 
sault are  used  to  overthrow  it.     But  we  remember,  too» 


TESTIMONIES  TO  ITS  POWER.  153 

the  history  of  such  assaults  in  former  ages :  what  sieges 
of  criticism  and  scholastic  opposition  this  Bible  has  en- 
countered, what  hurricanes  of  enmity  and  opposition  it 
has  withstood,  what  new  defences  of  evidence  and  moral 
power  it  has  acquired  from  age  to  age,  and  we  abate  "no 
jot  of  heart  or  hope"  amid  the  present  conflicts  of  human 
reason  with  the  word  of  God.  It  stands  before  us,  in 
this  present  age,  in  an  attitude  so  peculiar,  so  imposing, 
so  utterly  unlike  that  of  every  other  volume,  that  it  car- 
ries with  it  its  own  evidence,  and  commends  itself  to 
every  conscience  in  the  sight  of  God. 

The  simplest  test  of  origin  or  authorship  in  any  work 
is  its  accordance  with  the  character  or  genius  of  him  to 
whom  it  is  ascribed.  By  this  test  try  the  Bible.  What 
thing  so  Godlike  does  the  world  contain  .?  He  is  the  liv- 
ing God.  This  is  the  living  word,  a  transcript  of  his  holi- 
ness, an  unfolding  of  his  power,  a  demonstration  of  his 
love.  "  Older  than  all  human  histories,  it  has  come  down 
to  us  leaving  a  thousand  fallen  empires  in  its  track.  It 
has  foretold  the  ruin  of  Eg3^pt,  Babylon,  Persia,  Greece, 
and  Rome,  and  yet  it  still  survives.  While  nations,  kings, 
philosophies,  systems,  and  institutions,  have  died  away, 
the  Bible  now  engages  men's  attention,  is  studied  by  the 
keenest  intellects,  is  reverenced  by  the  purest  hearts, 
keeps  progress  with  the  advancing  civilization  of  the 
world,  originates  the  institutions  of  philanthropy,  im- 
parts ideas  of  law  and  liberty,  reforms  and  elevates  the 
fallen,  sustains  the  faith  of  those  who  rest  upon  it,  and 
utilizes  every  new  invention  and  discovery  to  overrun  the 


154  THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN'S  NEEDS; 

earth."*  Thus  it  survives  all  changes,  itself  unchanged  ; 
it  moves  all  minds,  and  yet  is  moved  by  none ;  it  sees  all 
things  decay,  and  yet  is  incorruptible ;  it  sees  myriads  of 
other  books  ingulfed  in  the  stream  of  time,  but  it  is  borne 
along  triumphantly  upon  the  wave.  It  is,  in  this  grand 
demonstration  of  vitality,  its  own  sufficient  evidence. 
"A  bad  heart,"  said  the  Earl  of  Rochester  to  Bishop 
Burnet,  "is  the  great  argument  against  this  holy  book." 
It  is  the  book  of  books  for  man.  "  It  has  God  for  its 
author,  eternity  for  its  object,  salvation  for  its  end,  and 
truth,  without  any  admixture  of  error,  for  its  subject 
matter."!  "  The  word  of  the  Lord  is  tried,"  and  "  the 
word  of  the  Lord  endureth  for  ever."  Thus  by  the  abun- 
dant evidence  for  its  authority  it  is  adapted  to  satisfy  our 
need  of  certainty  as  to  the  foundation  upon  which  it 
rests.  But  still  more  impressive  is  the  proof  which  is 
presented. 

Secondly,  By  a  consideratioji  of  the  great  theme  zvhich 
it  presents  to  maii  s  atte7ttion  ;  wJiich  is  the  tidings  and  offer 
of  redemption.  One  of  the  most  learned  and  eminent  of 
English  lawyers  in  the  seventeenth  century  was  John 
Selden.  Some  days  before  his  death  he  sent  for  Arch- 
bishop Usher,  and  said  to  him,  "  I  have  surveyed  most  of 
the  learning  that  is  among  the  sons  of  men,  yet  at  this 
moment  I  can  recall  nothing  in  them  on  which  to  rest 
my  soul,  save  one  from  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  which 
rises  much  on  my  mind.  It  is  this  :  '  The  grace  of  God 
which  bringeth  salvation,  hath  appeared  unto  all  men, 

*  An  unknown  author.  t  John  Locke. 


TESTIMONIES  TO  ITS  POWER.  155 

teaching  us  that  denying  ungodliness  and  worldly  lusts, 
we  should  live  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly  in  this 
present  world,  looking  for  that  blessed  hope  and  the 
glorious  appearing  of  the  great  God  and  our  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ,  who  gave  himself  for  us  that  he  might  re- 
deem us  unto  himself  a  peculiar  people  zealous  of  good 
works.' " 

In  the  same  tone  as  this  utterance  of  the  English  ju- 
rist was  the  confession  of  one  of  the  greatest  of  Ameri- 
can theologians,*  when  lying  on  his  deathbed  in  a  neigh- 
boring town.  Few  men  of  his  profession  or  of  his  time 
had  been  more  deeply  interested  in  the  religious  contro- 
versies of  the  day,  or  had  studied  the  Scriptures  more 
profoundly.  But  when  one  asked  him,  in  that  sunset  of 
his  life,  some  question  concerning  one  of  the  points  of 
doctrine  which  he  had  earnestly  supported,  he  made  this 
memorable  answer :  "  Here  I  find  that  all  my  theology  is 
reduced  to  this  :  'Jesus  Christ  came  into  the  world  to  save 
sinners,  of  whom  I  am  chief.' " 

In  these  simple,  earnest  utterances  of  these  eminent 
and  gifted  men,  we  find  that  central  theme  of  comfort 
which  the  Bible  offers  to  a  fallen  race,  and  by  which  it  is 
adapted  to  their  deepest  need.  Manifold  as  is  the  method 
of  its  revelation,  the  theme  is  always  one.  It  is  Christ 
Jesus  the  Redeemer,  "  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life," 
the  sinner's  advocate  and  intercessor,  the  sacrifice  by 
which  God's  justice  is  reconciled  with  mercy,  the  ref- 
uge of  the  soul  when  burdened  by  its  sins  or  trembling 

*  Dr.  Archibald  Alexander  of  Princeton. 


156  THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN'S  NEEDS; 

in  prospect  of  the  judgment.  From  first  to  last  the  Bi- 
ble is  the  history  of  His  infinite  fuhiess,  of  his  ineffable 
compassion,  of  his  sufficient  power  to  save.  It  holds  his 
person  and  his  work  envisaged  on  its  myriad  pages.  His 
presence  shines  through  all  its  parts  like  a  glorious  sun  giv- 
ing light  to  the  worlds  that  circle  around  it.  Everything  in 
the  Bible  points  to  Christ,  and  helps  to  hold  him  up  before 
the  world.  Its  revelation  of  redeeming  love  is  like  the 
progressive  shining  of  the  day-dawn  on  the  world  which 
slumbers  in  thick  darkness — at  first  the  faintest  tint  of 
light  thrown  on  the  blackness  of  the  sky,  then  the  broad 
belt  of  blue  and  gold  encircling  the  mountain  summits, 
and  then  the  radiance  of  the  risen  sun  pouring  down  into 
the  valleys  and  filling  all  the  firmament  with  light.  Thus, 
from  page  to  page,  progressively,  the  Bible  is  illuminated 
with  the  glory  of  the  cross.  The  single  ray,  which  shone 
in  the  first  darkness  of  the  fall,  grows  ever  brighter  to  the 
perfect  day.  The  voice  which  whispered  comfort  to  the 
sinner  flying  from  the  Eden  forfeited  by  sin,  grows  clear- 
er, fuller,  sweeter,  as  the  ages  pass,  until  from  Calvary's 
height  the  Son  of  God  cries,  "  It  is  finished,"  and  until 
the  message  which  that  finished  offering  authorizes  is 
published  to  the  world  in  the  last  of  apocalyptic  visions 
by  the  ascended  and  triumphant  Jesus  :  "  Whosoever 
will,  let  him  come  and  take  the  water  of  life  freely." 
Now  this  specific  declaration  of  God's  love  in  Christ  is 
the  deep  fulness  of  ''the  comfort  of  the  Scriptures." 
This  is  their  blessed  adaptation  to  the  burdened,  guilty 
soul  of  man.     Until  this  thou.srht  of  God's  infinite  and 


TESTUIONIES  TO  ITS  POWER.  157 

all-embracing  love  in  Christ  is  known,  man  lives  in  dark- 
ness and  in  fear. 

"  Like  one  that  on  a  lonesome  road 
Doth  walk  in  fear  and  dread, 
Because  he  knows  some  ghastly  fiend 
Doth  still  behind  him  tread."  s.  t.  coleridge. 

But  with  this  revelation,  the  loneliness  and  gloom  are 
lifted  from  the  soul.     In  Christ  the  mystery  is  solved. 

"God's  thoughts  are  love;  and  Jesus  is 
The  loving  voice  they  find. 
His  love  lights  up  the  vast  abyss 

Of  the  eternal  mind."         t.  d.  burns'  vision  of  prophecy-. 

In  him  the  promises  of  God  are  "yea."  There  is  assu- 
rance of  redeeming  love  when  we  "  behold  the  Lamb  of 
God."  To  read  this  tidings  in  the  Bible  is  to  understand 
the  book.  To  read  it,  and  receive  it  as  a  personal  expe- 
rience, is  to  know  "  the  peace  of  God  which  passeth  under- 
standing." In  his  old  age  William  Wilberforce  uttered 
these  words:  "I  never  knew  happiness  till  I  found 
Christ,  as  a  Saviour.  Read  the  Bible.  Read  the  Bible ! 
Through  all  my  perplexities  and  distresses  I  never  read 
any  other  book,  I  never  knew  the  want  of  any  other.  It 
has  been  my  hourly  study  and  all  my  knowledge  of  the 
doctrines,  all  my  acquaintance  with  the  experience  and 
realities  of  religion,  I  have  derived  from  the  Bible  only. 
Books  about  religion  are  well  enough,  but  will  not  do 
instead."  To  this  impressive  testimony  of  the  great 
English  philanthropist  to  the  soul-sustaining  influence 
of  the  essential  theme  of  the  Bible,  I  may  add  that  of 
Arthur  Hallam,  the  gifted  young  man  to  whom  the  poet 

14 


158  THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN'S  NEEDS; 

laureate  of  England  inscribes  his  "  In  Memoriam."  "  I 
find,"  he  writes,  "in  the  doctrine  of  the  cross  a  peculiar 
and  inexhaustible  treasure  for  the  affections,  the  idea  of 
the  theanthropos,  the  God  whose  goings-forth  have  been 
from  everlasting,  becoming  visible  to  men  for  their  re- 
demption, as  an  earthly  temporal  creature  ;  living,  acting 
and  suffering  among  themselves,  and  what  is  more  im- 
portant transferring  to  the  unseen  place  of  his  spiritual 
agency  the  same  humanity  he  wore  on  earth,  so  that  the 
lapse  of  generations  can  in  no  way  affect  the  conception 
of  his  identity ;  this  is  the  most  powerful  thought  that 
ever  addressed  itself  to  the  human  imagination.  It  was 
the  Txov  GTu  which  alone  was  wanted  to  move  the  world." 
And  we  may  say  in  turning  from  this  part  of  our  subject, 
it  has  moved  the  world  as  nothing  else  in  the  long  course 
of  history  has  done.  Addressing  man  through  the  affec- 
tions, revealing  unto  him  the  Holy  One  "  who  for  us  men 
and  our  salvation  was  incarnate  and  suffered  on  the 
cross  to  atone  for  sin,"  bearing  to  all  guilty,  burdened 
hearts  the  invitation  of  the  Son  of  God — which  none  has 
ever  tested  to  be  disappointed  of  its  promise — "  Come  unto 
me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give 
you  rest," — this  book  is  the  holy  manna  of  the  world :  it 
is  the  chart  of  a  river  in  which  whosoever  washes  is 
healed  of  the  leprosy  of  sin  and  made  meet  for  the  in- 
heritance of  the  saints  in  light.  Milton  grandly  describes 
the  archangel  Uriel  descending  to  the  earth  in  a  sunbeam. 
The  revelation  of  the  Bible  is  a  beam  in  which  the  High 
and  Lofty  One  who  inhabiteth  eternity  descends  to  change 


TESTIMONIES  TO  ITS  TO  WER. 


59 


the  night  of  nature  into  the  daydawn  of  redemption  and 
to  draw  the  nations  to  the  brightness  of  its  rising. 

But  third,  wJicn  zve  look  beyond  the  basis  and  the  snb- 
jcct-viatter  of  the  word  of  God,  we  are  at  once  impressed 
with  that  element  of  comfort  in  the  Scriptures  ivhich 
springs  from  their  adaptation  to  the  varying  individuality 
of  mankind.  In  constructing  the  Bible  in  its  own  pecuUar 
form  God  has  had  special  reference  to  the  structure  of 
the  mind  of  man.  The  all-important  message  of  salvation 
is  commended  to  us  and  made  especially  attractive  by 
the  mode  in  which  it  is  presented.  In  the  compositions 
of  human  ingenuity  and  wisdom  upon  the  subject  of 
religion,  we  find  a  narrowness  of  adaptation  which  makes 
them  interesting  only  to  a  single  class  of  minds.  The 
treatise  of  Plato  upon  immortality  is  attractive  to  a 
scholar,  but  obscure  and  dull  to  an  unlettered  man.  The 
Rig- Veda  of  the  Hindoo  contains  some  striking  passages, 
but  as  a  whole  it  is  unintelligible.  The  Koran  is  said  to 
be  a  sealed  book  to  the  great  majority  of  those  who 
acknowledge  its  authority.  Man-made  books  speak  to 
the  thoughts  of  those  who  are  in  the  intellectual  sphere 
of  their  composers.  It  is  the  characteristic  of  the  highest 
genius  that  it  can  reach  the  minds  of  diverse  multitudes 
and  portray  the  passions  which  are  stirring  on  that  harp 
of  many  strings,  the  soul  of  man.  Homer,  Dante,  Shake- 
speare, Virgil,  Goethe,  these  were  many-sided  writers; 
and  yet  how  much  of  human  life,  and  need,  and  destiny, 
they  left  untouched.  In  contrast  with  all  other  books, 
the  Bible  fills  the  whole  circumference  of  man's  endow- 


i6o  THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN'S  NEEDS; 

ment  It  touches  every  spring  of  thought  and  feeling 
in  this  deep  humanity.  It  is  adapted  to  instruct  the 
savage,  to  inspire  the  sage,  to  interest  and  guide  the  lit- 
tle child.  It  not  only  deals  with  all  subjects  which  are 
related  to  man's  duty  and  destiny  in  time  and  in  eternity  ; 
but  it  deals  with  them  in  such  a  manner  that  every  style 
of  thought  and  feeling  may  find  within  its  pages  the  nu- 
triment or  stimulus  it  needs.  Some  come  to  it  for  prac- 
tical instruction :  it  gives  them  precepts  of  the  most  intense 
directness,  proverbs  which  condense  the  meaning  of  a 
treatise  into  a  single  line.  Some  come  to  it  with  tran- 
sient curiosity :  it  gives  them  narratives  of  thrilling  interest 
and  opens  up  before  them  questions  which  arouse  the 
dullest  minds.  Some  come  to  it  with  the  cultivated  taste 
which  seeks  rhetorical  and  poetic  beauty :  it  gives  them 
passages  of  the  loftiest  grandeur,  conceptions  of  majesty 
and  sublime  significance  which  rise  above  the  common 
range  of  human  thought  as  the  everlasting  hills  tower 
high  above  the  valleys.  Some  come  to  it  with  careworn 
anxious,  trembUng  hearts :  it  gives  them  messages  of 
sympathy  and  tenderness  which  greet  them  as  a  mother's 
comfort  soothes  a  timid  child.  In  one  word,  not  to  extend 
details  of  a  subject  so  exhaustless,  the  Bible  comes  to 
every  one  who  will  receive  it,  as  a  book  which  finds  him 
out,  and  meets  his  wants,  and  guides  his  thoughts  to 
duty  and  to  God.  And  so,  it  has  been  said  of  it,  "  It  is 
the  king's  best  copy,  the  magistrate's  best  rule,  the  house- 
wife's best  guide,  the  servant's  best  direction,  the  young 
man's  best  companion.     It  is  the  schoolboy's  best  story- 


TESTIMONIES  TO  ITS  POWER.  i6i 

book  and  the  scholar's  masterpiece.  It  contains  a  gram- 
mar for  the  novice  and  a  mystery  for  the  sage."  "  I  see," 
wrote  Hallam,  "that  the  Bible  fits  into  every  fold  and 
crevice  of  the  human  heart.  I  am  a  man ;  and  I  believe 
that  this  is  God's  book,  because  it  is  man's  book."  It  is  this 
far-reaching  adaptation  to  the  complex  being,  man;  this 
infinite  variety  in  the  alluring  power  with  which  it  draws 
the  fallen  creature  to  its  central  truth  and  promise,  which 
makes  the  Bible  the  book  of  God  for  all  men  everywhere 
and  gives  it  power  to  make  its  blessing  known  "far  as 
the  curse  is  found." 

Fourth,  let  us  add  to  this  fact  that  otJier  dement  of  the 
comfort  of  the  Scriptures  which  is  discovered  in  their 
relatioji  to  all  the  changing  conditions  of  mans  estate  on 
earth.  Not  only  does  the  Bible  meet  the  individuality  of 
man,  with  truth  adapted  to  all  special  needs  or  tastes,  it 
also  comes  into  direct  connection  with  his  circumstances 
and  understands  them  and  helps  him  whatever  they  may 
be  to  find  through  them  a  way  to  God.  This  is  no  less  an 
element  of  comfort  than  the  facts  already  mentioned. 
Diverse  and  startling  as  are  the  changes  which  pass  over 
human  life  in  its  progressive  periods,  there  is  a  deep 
necessity  that  God  should  spread  his  guiding  and  sus- 
taining truth  before  mankind  in  comprehensive  fulness, 
so  that  in  each  event  of  life  the  mind  may  know  his  will, 
and  the  heart  may  feel  his  consolation.  This  is  the 
marvellous  adaptation  of  the  word  of  God  to  man's  estate, 
whether  it  be  one  of  trial  or  prosperity.  "When  thou 
goest  it  shall  lead  thee,  when  thou  sleepest  it  shall  keep 

14* 


i62  THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN'S  NEEDS; 

thee,  when  thou  wakest  it  shall  talk  with  thee;  for  the 
commandment  is  a  lamp  and  the  law  is  light."  In  this 
relation  of  "  the  comfort  of  the  Scriptures,"  think  how 
they  are  adapted  to  the  common  duties  and  the  great 
emergencies  of  life.  Here  in  this  place  to-night  are 
gathered  hundreds  of  human  souls  in  all  the  various  ex- 
perience of  joy  or  sorrow,  of  poverty  and  wealth,  of  exul- 
tation and  depression,  of  burden-bearing  and  of  ease. 
What  human  word  or  work  could  possibly  provide  the 
guidance  or  rebuke  or  consolation  for  so  many  diverse 
wants }  But  God's  word  comes  to  each  just  as  he  needs 
it.  The  all-fitting,  all  foreseeing  truths  of  the  Bible  pro- 
vide the  antidote  in  temptation,  the  guide  to  duty,  the 
corrective  in  prosperity,  the  solace  in  affliction.  In  your 
prosperity,  it  shows  you  how  to  use  the  gifts  of  God,  so 
that  they  may  promote  his  glory  and  your  spiritual  wealth. 
In  your  friendlessness,  it  tells  you  of  "a  friend  that 
sticketh  closer  than  a  brother."  In  your  anxiety  for 
earthly  goods,  it  teaches  you  that  your  Father  knoweth 
that  you  have  need  of  all  these  things.  In  your  sharp 
conflicts  with  the  world,  it  bids  you  be  of  good  cheer  foi 
Christ  has  "overcome  the  world."  In  your  bereavement 
it  whispers,  "  For  a  little  while  I  tried  thee  as  a  father  his 
child,  for  thy  good ;  yea,  in  faithfulness  and  love  have  I 
stricken  thee."  Oh,  it  is  marvellous  what  leaves  innu- 
merable hang  on  this  "tree  of  life"  for  the  healing  of  the 
nations.  No  circumstances  can  surpass,  no  depth  of 
trial  can  exhaust  "  the  comfort  of  the  Scriptures."  One 
of  the  subjects  often  chosen  by  the  great  painters  of  the 


TESTIMONIES  TO  ITS  TO  WER.  163 

middle  ages  was  taken  from  the  legend  of  Sebastian 
standing  against  a  rock  pierced  through  and  through 
with  arrows.  The  rock  sustained  him  though  the  arrows 
drank  his  blood.  So  stands  the  man  who  leans  upon  the 
word  of  God.  "  When  thou  passeth  through  the  waters 
I  will  be  with  thee  and  through  the  rivers  they  shall  not 
overflow  thee."  "  In  all  these  things  we  are  more  than 
conquerors."  "  The  comfort  of  the  Scriptures  "  suits  each 
event  of  life.  "  It  is  this  universal  applicability  of  the 
Bible,"  says  Robertson,  "which  has  made  its  influence 
universal.  This  book  has  held  spell-bound  the  hearts  of 
nations  in  a  way  in  which  no  other  book  has  ever  held  men 
before.  States  have  been  founded  on  its  principles. 
Kings  rule  by  a  contract  based  upon  it.  Men  hold  it  in 
their  hands  when  they  prepare  to  give  solemn  evidence 
affecting  life  or  death.  Its  prayers  and  its  psalms  are 
the  language  which  we  use  when  we  speak  to  God.  If 
there  ever  has  been  a  prayer  or  a  hymn  enshrined  in  the 
heart  of  a  nation  you  are  sure  to  find  its  basis  in  the 
Bible."  To  the  same  effect  is  the  assertion  of  Sir  William 
Jones,  second  in  scholarship  and  learning  to  none  who 
has  lived  during  the  present  century.  "The  Scriptures 
contain  more  true  sublimity,  more  exquisite  beauty,  more 
pure  morality,  more  important  history,  and  finer  strains  of 
poetry  and  eloquence,  than  could  be  collected  from  all 
other  books  that  were  ever  composed  in  any  age  or  in 
any  idiom."  In  this  vast  affluence  of  power  and  beauty, 
with  principles  and  truth  which  embody  the  thoughts  of 
God,  concerning  all   the  diverse  circumstances   of  his 


1 64  THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN'S  NEEDS; 

creatures,  the  Bible  has  the  right  to  claim  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  world  as  the  true  instrument  of  progress,  cul- 
ture, and  reform.  That  scene  which  Robert  Burns  has 
protrayed  in  his  poem  on  "The  Cotter's  Saturday 
Night,"  is  one  which  vindicates  the  influence  of  the 
Bible  in  every  house  and  every  land  where  it  is  found : 

"  From  scenes  like  this  old  Scotia's  grandeur  springs, 
That  makes  her  loved  at  home,  revered  abroad." 

When  a  pagan  ambassador  asked  Queen  Victoria  the 
reason  for  the  greatness  of  her  realm,  she  gave  him  a 
Bible  saying,  "  That  is  the  secret  of  the  greatness  of  Eng- 
land." And  in  that  same  strain  was  that  sentence  in 
the  centennial  letter  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States  to  the  Sunday-schools  of  the  land :  "  Hold  fast 
to  the  Bible  as  the  sheet-anchor  of  your  liberties,  write 
its  precepts  in  your  heart,  practise  them  in  your  lives. 
To  the  influence  of  this  book  we  are  indebted  for  all  the 
progress  made  in  true  civilization,  and  to  it  we  must  look 
as  our  guide  in  the  future."  On  the  basis  of  such  an  adap- 
tation to  the  conditions  of  man  our  confidence  in  the 
hold  of  the  Bible  on  the  generations  to  come  may  be 
supreme.  Kingdoms  may  be  shaken,  thrones  pass  away, 
customs  and  languages  change ;  but  so  long  as  the  earth 
endures,  the  morality,  the  doctrines,  the  precepts  and 
promises  of  the  Bible  shall  continue  as  the  seed  of  the 
world's  life  and  the  lamp  of  the  world's  light,  until  the  full 
harvest  of  the  earth  shall  be  reaped.  It  is  hard  to  refrain 
from  comparing  with  all  this  fulness  of  achievement  and 
promise  on  the  part  of   the  Bible,  the   utter  failure  of 


TESTIMONIES  TO  ITS  POWER.  165 

infidelity  and  slcepticism  in  this  field.  In  the  language 
of  a  recent  writer*  we  may  ask,  "As  for  skepticism 
what  has  it  done  ?  What  immoral  man  has  it  reformed  ? 
What  savage  has  it  reclaimed  ?  What  barbarous  tribe 
has  it  civilized  ?  What  wilderness  has  it  transformed 
into  an  Eden  ?  Over  what  continent  has  it  poured  out 
its  philanthropies  to  ameliorate  the  mass  of  the  people  ? 
What  has  it  accomplished  by  its  questionings,  its  gloom, 
its  despair  for  the  deliverance  of  our  race  from  its  sin 
and  misery  ?"  To  ask  the  question  is  to  answer  it.  "  By 
their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 

Fifth.  A  few  words  only  may  be  uttered  in  closing, 
concerning  that  great  question  which  stature  leaves  well 
nigh  tmsolved,  and  yet  npon  which  all  the  interest?*  of  our 
being  centre.  I  mean  the  fiiture  of  existence  and  the  support 
which  is  demanded  by  the  soul  in  passing  from  things 
seen  and  temporal,  to  tilings  2inscen  and  eternal.  Do  you 
remember  the  story  of  the  closing  hours  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott }  He  asked  his  friend  Lockhardt  to  read  to  him. 
"  What  shall  I  read  from  .?"  "  There  is  but  one  book  for 
a  man  in  my  condition."  Thus  more  and  more  clearly, 
as  one  reflects  upon  the  mystery  of  life  and  death,  upon 
the  transient  present  and  the  great  hereafter ;  as  he 
desires  assurance  that  in  the  rending  and  dissolving  of 
this  earthly  tabernacle  there  shall  remain  a  "  building 
,  of  God,"  for  his  eternal  home;  is  he  directed  towards 
"  the  comfort  of  the  Scriptures,"  for  his  hope.  I  do  not 
say  that  nature  does  not  tell  us  of  a  future  life,  but  it  is  cer- 

*  Rev.  William  MacDill  of  Ireland. 


1 66  THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN'S  NEEDS; 

tain  that  science,  the  so-called  interpreter  of  nature,  does 
in  these  days  seem  to  verge  more  and  more  towards  a 
denial  of  the  soul  and  immortality.  At  any  rate  it  is 
only  in  the  light  of  revelation  that  one  can  move  with  an 
unfaltering  trust  towards  the  dark  stream  of  death  ;  join- 
ing in  the  song  of  the  conquering  saints  of  old  :  "  O  death, 
where  is  thy  sting  ?  O  grave,  where  is  thy  victory  ?"  The 
comfort  of  the  Scriptures  shines  like  a  star  of  hope  when 
the  last  shadows  of  life's  transient  day  are  falling,  and  all 
about  that  star  extends  the  firmament  of  light  and  love, 
in  which  the  living  God  has  opened  worlds  of  life  as 
mansions  for  the  soul. 

Now  here  is  an  element  of  adaptation  which  is  con- 
spicuous and  unparalleled.  Familiar,  and  even  trite,  as 
the  subject  of  deathbed  experience  is,  it  is,  after  all,  rec- 
ognized on  all  hands  as  a  fact  that,  when  death  comes,  it 
is  "  a  test  of  the  man  and  a  test  of  his  principles."  And 
that  system  or  truth  which  affords  support  and  consola- 
tion to  one  who  stands  on  that  last  low  verge  of  earth, 
is  by  that  very  fact  commended  to  the  confidence  of  the 
race.  "  Go  where  you  will  throughout  our  dying  world, 
consult  the  saint,  the  savage,  or  the  sage,  and  you  will 
find,  from  the  experience  of  them  all,  that  faith  in  the 
word  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  himself  '  the  res- 
urrection and  the  life,'  is  the  only  power  that  can  take 
the  sting  from  death  and  from  the  grave  its  victory." 
There  is  not  a  deathbed  like  that  of  Dudley  Tyng  or 
Alfred  Cookman  in  the  whole  world  outside  the  Bible. 
Compare   the   last   end   of    Hume,  Voltaire,    Mirabeau, 


TESTIMONIES  TO  ITS  POWER.  167 

Aaron  Burr,  or  Stuart  Mill,  with  that  of  Rutherford,  or 
Payson,  or  Simeon  Calhoun,  or  Henry  B.  Smith  !  We 
challenge  the  whole  host  of  infidelity  to  show  a  single 
instance,  well  authenticated,  of  an  intelligent  man  who, 
on  infidel  principles,  has  enjoyed  real  happiness  in  life 
and  peace  in  death.  And  on  the  other  hand,  no  fact  in 
history  is  better  attested  than  that  individuals  of  every 
people  and  nation,  of  every  age  and  rank,  of  every  grade 
of  intelligence  and  culture,  of  every  period,  from  the 
bloom  of  youth  to  the  decrepitude  of  age,  have,  through 
the  faith  of  the  Bible,  enjoyed  a  happiness  which  the 
world  never  gave  and  could  not  take  away;  and  have 
encountered  death  with  a  triumphant  joy,  which  was  a 
prophecy  and  foretaste  of  "the  joy  of  the  home-life  of 
the  better  land"  to  which  they  knew  that  they  were  go- 
ing. And  thus  at  the  supremest  point  of  trial  we  find 
the  adaptation  of  the  Bible  to  man's  need  complete,  and 
for  the  confirmation  of  our  hope  we  hear  the  cadence 
of  innumerable  voices  crying,  as  they  pass  the  bounda- 
ries of  this  lower  life,  "Thanks  be  unto  God  which 
giveth  us  the  victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 
Here  is  the  book  which  has  brought  life  and  immortality 
to  light.  This  is  the  record  that  "  God  has  given  unto 
us  eternal  life,  and  this  life  is  in  his  Son." 

But  we  have  reached  our  limit,  and  with  this  partial 
presentation  of  a  theme  so  grand  and  so  exhaustless,  that 
to  do  it  justice  would  demand  an  angel's  pen,  we  leave 
it  only  summing  up  the  matter  now  presented.  ' 

The  adaptation  of  the  Bible  to  the  universal  needs  o^ 


1 68  THE  BIBLE  AND  MAN'S  NEEDS. 

the  soul  is  evidenced  when  we  consider  its  solid  basis, 
the  authority  of  God  ;  its  precious  message,  the  tidings 
of  salvation  by  the  love  and  blood  of  Jesus ;  its  marvel- 
lous and  varied  diversity,  which  makes  it  a  voice  to  every 
heart ;  its  comprehensive  scope  and  range,  which  touches 
life  at  all  its  points  ;  its  soul-sustaining  hope,  which  shines 
upon  the  sepulchre  and  makes  the  grave  "  a  pathway  to 
the  skies."  Here  is  the  "comfort  of  the  Scriptures," 
which  fills  the  soul  with  hope.  Oh  that  it  might  be  made 
a  positive  experience  to  all  who  hear  me  now,  through  the 
teaching  of  the  HoJy  Ghost !  Receiving  the  Bible,  thus 
adapted  to  your  needs,  it  will  become  God's  message  of 
salvation  to  your  soul.  The  teaching  of  the  Scriptures 
will  make  you  wise  unto  salvation.  The  comfort  of  the 
Scriptures  will  go  with  you  in  every  scene  of  toil  and 
trial.  The  God  of  the  Bible  will  be  your  guide  even  unto 
death. 

**  Oh  grant  us  grace,  almighty  Lord, 
To  read  and  mark  thy  holy  word, 
Its  truths  with  meekness  to  receive, 
And  by  its  holy  preqepts  live." 


Miracles  and  Prophecies 


WHICH 


SHOW  THE  BIBLE  DIVINE. 


REV.  NOAH  PORTER,  D.  B., 

PRESIDENT  OF  YALE  COLLEGE,  NEW  HAVEN,  CONN. 


15 


MIRACLES 


AND 


Modern   Thought 


That  "the  age  of  miracles  is  past"  is  one  of  the 
tritest  of  commonplaces.  That  the  age  in  which  men 
believe  that  miracles  were  ever  wrought  is  fast  passing 
away,  is  the  confident  assertion  of  many  who  profess  to 
discern  the  tendencies  of  modern  thinking  and  to  predict 
the  end  to  which  they  lead.  Many  who  assume  to  speak 
for  science  say  that  the  belief  in  miracles  has  become 
thoroughly  unscientific.  Critics  who  beHeve  in  no  other 
inspiration  or  prophecy  seem  inspired  to  discern  and  pro- 
phetically to  declare  that  the  moving  narrations  of  the 
Christian  miracles  will  soon  be  read  only  for  the  gentle- 
ness and  pathos  which  they  symbolize,  but  have  parted 
for  ever  with  the  sacredness  of  truth.  Materialists  will 
of  course  believe  in  the  reports  of  no  miracles,  except  of 
the  sudden  rushing  of  nebulous  matter  into  a  newly-cre- 
ated star,  or  the  burning  out  of  some  star  into  a  cloud  of 
thickening  mist.     They  will  credit  no  stories  of  healing 


172      MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT, 

of  the  sick,  except  by  some  newly-discovered  elixir  of 
life,  and  no  raising  of  the  dead,  except  through  the  evolu- 
tion of  unorganized  matter  into  organic  life.  Spiritual- 
ists will  say  they  find  miracles  enough  in  "  the  blowing 
clover "  and  "  the  falling  rain,"  in  the  tenderness  of 
spring,  the  glory  of  summer,  the  sadness  of  autumn  and 
the  sternness  of  winter,  and  in  the  ever-renewed  revela- 
tions of  the  spirit  of  the  universe  to  the  ever-interpret- 
ing and  ever-worshipping  spirit  of  man.  Men  who  know 
the  world,  and  claim  to  test  the  Christian  story  by  men 
as  they  find  them,  explain  the  belief  in  the  miraculous, 
partly  by  the  warm  imaginations  and  partly  by  the  cre- 
dulity of  mystical  and  admiring  believers.  Men  who 
aspire  to  penetrate  the  secret  of  all  great  souls,  venture 
with  bold  analysis,  if  not  with  inimitable  effrontery,  to 
explain  the  successive  steps  by  which  the  greatest  mira- 
cle of  all — that  Being  whose  eyes  of  mingled  majesty 
and  pity  have  hitherto  searched  the  hearts  of  men  like 
a  flame  of  fire — was  mistaken  as  to  his  own  Messiahship 
and  his  divine  right  to  save  and  to  rule  the  sinning  and 
the  lost.  The  time  was  when  miracles  were  esteemed 
the  strongest  defence  of  the  Christian  system,  The 
time  is  fast  coming,  it  is  said,  when  the  miracles  will  be 
a  decisive  objection  against  its  claims  to  confidence  as 
supernatural. 

All  these  classes  of  persons  agree  in  rejecting  the 
Christian  miracles  as  in  their  nature  impossible,  and 
the  Christian  histories  concerning  them  as  therefore  so 
far  incredible.    Most  of  them  agree  that,  did  not  these  nar- 


MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.      173 

ratives  contain  the  record  that  Christ  healed  the  sick  and 
raised  the  dead,  and  himself  rose  from  the  dead,  they 
would  be  as  worthy  of  credence  in  every  particular  as 
the  life  of  Socrates ;  in  other  respects,  they  are  as  well, 
if  not  better,  supported  in  every  particular  as  any  nar- 
ratives whatever,  as  of  Caesar  or  Napoleon.  But  still 
they  reason  they  cannot  be  true  because  they  narrate 
events  which  could  not  possibly  have  taken  place  as  they 
record  them.  Some  of  you  will  perhaps  think  that  I 
have  forgotten  that  a  certain  class  of  writers  question 
whether  the  four  Gospels,  in  the  form  in  which  we  have 
them,  were  writt-en  in  the  first  century.  For  our  argu- 
ment, this  point  is  of  minor  importance.  For  no  man 
questions  that  we  have  one  document,  namely,  Paul's 
First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  which  was  written  in 
the  year  59,  twenty-six  years  after  Christ  was  cruci- 
fied— only  nine  years  longer  than  since  Fort  Sumter 
was  bombarded — and  written  by  a  man  who  affirms  that 
for  more  than  twenty  years  previous  he  had  believed 
and  preached  that  Christ  was  risen  from  the  dead,  and 
was  just  the  being  in  supernatural  power  and  miracu- 
lous works  that  these  Gospels  represent  him  to  have 
been.  Moreover,  he  says  that  not  only  was  Christ  raised 
from  the  dead  twenty-six  years  before,  but  that  nearly 
five  hundred  men  were  then  living  who  had  seen  him 
after  his  resurrection.  i  Cor.  15  :  1-8.  There  is  no 
denying  the  fact  that  the  stories  of  these  miracles  of 
Christ  were  believed  as  early. as  one  or  two  years  after 
Christ  was  put  to  dcalli,  by  several  hundreds  and  even 

If)* 


174     MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

thousands  of  persons.  This  is  not  all.  The  ablest  wri- 
ter of  the  present  century  against  the  supernatural  in 
Christianity,  F.  C.  Baur,  gives  this  as  his  opinion : 
"  While  historical  criticism  has  nothing  to  do  with  the 
inquiry  what  the  resurrection  was  in  fact,  it  must  hold 
fast  to  the  assertion  that  in  the  belief  of  the  first  dis- 
ciples it  had  becomiC  an  established  and  incontroverti- 
ble certainty.  In  this  belief  Christianity  had  gained  a 
firm  ground  for  its  historical  development.  What  we 
must  assume  as  the  necessary  foundation  for  this  history 
is  not  the  fact  that  Jesus  rose  from  the  dead,  but  the  fact 
that  it  was  believed  that  he  had  risen.  However  we  may 
explain  the  faith,  the  resurrection  had  become  to  the  first 
Christians  a  fact  of  conviction,  and  had  for  them  all  the 
reality  of  an  historic  fact."* 

He  might  well  say  this.  For  it  is  notorious  that  just 
at  this  time  there  arose  such  a  change  in  the  thoughts 
and  plans  and  faiths  and  affections  of  men  in  all  the  Ro- 
man empire,  as  could  be  best  accounted  for  by  their  faith 
in  just  such  miracles  as  are  said  to  have  been  performed 
by  such  a  human  being  as  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  We 
might  add,  that  while  we  hold  with  this  writer  that  the 
Christian  church  can  only  be  accounted  for  by  its  belief 
in  this  miracle  of  the  Resurrection,  we  also  hold  that 
the  belief  in  the  miracle  itself  can  only  be  accounted  for 
by  its  having  actually  taken  place.  Why  does  not  this 
writer  and  all  who  agree  with  him  adopt  this  explana- 
tion }     Because  he  is  a  Pantheist,  and  believes  a  miracle 

*  Baur's  "  History  of  the  Christian  Church." 


MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.      175 

to  be  impossible.  Those  who  are  not  Pantheists,  but  foi 
other  reasons  reject  miracles  as  impossible,  are  in  the 
same  dilemma.  They  concede  that  the  early  Christian 
church  believed  in  miracles — that  Christ  must  have  be- 
lieved himself  to  be  the  Messiah  and  endowed  with  su- 
pernatural powers  ;  but  must  hold  that  both  were  mista- 
ken. But  how  can  this  mistake  of  both  be  explained  ? 
So  far  as  Christ  is  concerned,  it  is  neither  easy  nor  pleas- 
ant to  attempt  such  an  explanation ;  very  few  make  the 
experiment ;  of  those  who  do,  no  two  give  the  same  the- 
ory. So  far  as  his  disciples  are  concerned,  they  assert 
that  they  could  not  discriminate  between  miracles  and 
extraordinary  events  ;  that  they  had  no  fixed  scientific 
views  such  as  we  have  attained  in  respect  to  the  laws  of 
nature,  and  the  clearly  impossible  and  incredible ;  that 
they  were  very  imaginative,  good,  honest  people  enough, 
very  fond  of  their  Master,  who  was  a  wonderful  man  for 
piety  and  spiritual  insight  and  enthusiasm  ;  in  short,  a 
sort  of  man  in  regard  to  whom  good  sort  of  people  might 
believe  anything,  much  as  piously-disposed  Mormons  do 
of  their  apostles. 

That  which  gives  plausibility  to  this  theory  is  the 
fact  that  the  first  disciples  had  not  attained  to  any  scien- 
tific or  fixed  ideas  in  respect  to  the  laws  of  nature,  and 
that  some  of  them  believed  in  magic  and  divination.  We 
do  not  question  the  assertion  that  the  early  Christians 
believed  that  sorcerers  could  work  very  wonderful  deeds. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  just  as  clear  from  the  nar- 
rative that  the  miracles  of  Christ  were  recognized  as  im- 


1 7  6      MIR  A  CLES  AND  MODERN  THO  UGHT, 

measurably  superior  to  any  works  of  sorcery.  The  early 
believers  had  common  sense  enough  to  say,  as  one  is  re- 
ported to  have  said,  "  Rabbi,  we  know  that  thou  art  a 
teacher  come  from  God,  for  no  man  can  do  these  \i.  e.y 
siic/i]  miracles  except  God  be  with  him."  The  people, 
who  were  half  convinced,  inquired,  "When  Christ  cometh, 
will  he  do  more  miracles  than  these  i*"  The  first  disci- 
ples were  not  scientific  men  indeed ;  but  it  did  not  re- 
quire much  science  to  enable  plain  and  even  credulous 
people  to  know  that  since  the  world  began  "  was  it  not 
heard  that  any  man  opened  the  eyes  of  one  that  was 
born  blind."  They  believed  implicitly  in  divination ;  and 
they  knew  enough  of  it  to  be  certain  that  a  devil  could 
not  open  the  eyes  of  the  blind.  They  had  abundant  and 
sad  experience  of  the  hopelessness  of  long-continued  pa- 
ralysis and  leprosy,  and  were  as  well  persuaded  as  Mr. 
Huxley  can  be  that  the  gates  of  the  tomb  had  never 
given  back  a  single  victim  under  natural  laws.  If  we 
read  the  narratives  carefully,  we  shall  find  that  not  only 
the  enemies  of  Christ  were  critical  in  respect  to  the  mir- 
acles which  they  saw,  but  that  his  friends  were  also.  It  is 
said  that  Christ  or  his  disciples,  one  or  both,  were  morally 
great,  but  intellectually  weak,  and  so  one  or  both  were 
unconscious  deceivers  or  innocently  deceived.  How, 
then,  can  it  be  explained  that  forth  from  that  generation 
came  the  loftiest  and  the  loveliest,  the  simplest,  yet  the 
most  complex  ideal  of  a  master,  friend,  example.  Saviour 
of  human  kind,  that  the  world  has  ever  conceived ;  an 
ideal  that,  since  it  was  furnished  to  man  in  the  record. 


MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.      177 

has  never  been  altered  except  for  the  worse  ;  a  picture 
that  no  genius  can  retouch  except  to  mar;  a  gem  that  no 
poHsher  can  try  to  cut  except  to  break  it ;  able  to  guide 
the  oldest  and  to  sooth  the  youngest  of  mankind  ;  to  add 
lustre  to  our  brightest  joys  and  to  dispel  our  darkest 
fears  ?  There  must  certainly  have  been  intellectual  power 
somewhere  in  a  generation  which  brought  into  definite 
form  the  conception  of  Jesus,  which,  whether  realized  in 
fact  or  regarded  only  as  an  ideal,  is  the  greatest  miracle 
of  all  the  ages. 

Christ's  person  doubtless  gave  wondrous  dignity  and 
character  to  the  most  trivial  acts  of  healing,  as  well  as  to 
the  majestic  scenes  of  the  transfiguration  and  the  raising 
of  Lazarus,  and  of  the  son  of  the  widow  of  Nain.  For 
this  reason  alone  these  deeds  of  wonder  were  marvellously 
superior  to  the  tricks  and  jugglery  and  magic  arts  of  the 
hireling  and  filthy  conjurors  which  everybody  suspected 
even  when  they  dreaded  them.  Then  the  miracles  of 
Christ  were  inspired  by  such  love  and  pity  as  to  force 
upon  the  stupid  and  ignorant  the  conviction  that  these 
wonders  were  the  power  of  God,  After  the  great  mira- 
cle of  the  resurrection,  the  astounding  visit  of  the  Spirit 
which  transformed  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  disciples 
into  new  men  in  insight  and  courage,  and  last  but  not 
least,  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  the  curtain  falls  over 
the  scene  and  for  two  or  three  generations  we  have  scanty 
means  of  knowing  whether  miracles  were  wrought  any 
longer,  or  when  or  how  they  were  withdrawn,  for  we  have 
little  definite  and  trustworthy  history  upon  this  or  any 


1 78      MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

other  question  of  f^cts.  When  we  get  sight  of  the  churcli 
again,  we  find  no  positive  evidence  that  such  miracles 
were  claimed  to  be  wrought  as  had  occurred  in  the  days 
of  Christ  and  the  apostles.  So  far  as  we  can  see  they 
would  have  done  more  harm  than  good.  They  were  no 
longer  needed,  any  more  than  we  need  them  at  this  mo- 
ment. But  we  find  proof  enough  of  the  inveterate  longing 
after  magic  and  wonders,  which  lurks  in  the  hearts  of  all 
men.  We  find  the  church,  then  as  now,  more  inclined  to 
ask  for  the  last  news  from  wonder-land  rather  than  to  live 
the  spiritual  life  which  is  hidden  with  Christ  in  God.  It 
was  well  that  miracles  proper  had  ceased.  It  is  very 
certain  that  the  belief  that  they  might  occur,  and  now  and 
then  were  performed  in  fact,  did  not  cease,  and  that 
priests  cherished  and  stimulated  that  belief,  and  that  for 
century  after  century,  side  by  side  with  much  simple  trust 
in  Christ  and  humble  imitation  of  his  life,  there  was  a 
horrid  admixture  of  pretended  miracle-working,  such  as 
makes  us  faint  and  sick  to  read  of,  and  prepares  us  to 
understand  the  reaction  which  set  in  against  all  belief 
in  the  supernatural  and  miracles,  when  learning  was  re- 
vived and  science  began  to  be  developed  and  the  Refor- 
mation exalted  Christ  into  the  place  which  the  church 
and  the  priesthood  had  usurped.  Even  protestantism 
retained  not  a  few  of  old  beliefs  in  respect  to  divination, 
and  the  line  was  not  yet  sharply  drawn  between  the 
extraordinary  and  the  miraculous.  But  as  soon  as  physical 
science  began  to  look  into  the  material  universe,  and  to 
test  its  theories  by  experiment,  the  separate  forces  of 


MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.      179 

nature  made  themselves  manifest,  and  the  laws  of  these 
forces  were  found  to  be  capable  of  definite  statement. 
As  one  new  discovery  after  another  was  made,  and- occur- 
rences deemed  the  most  extraordinary  and  marvellous 
were  explained  by  these  forces  and  laws,  men  began  to 
ask  themselves  whether  the  works  of  magic  that  were 
still  practised  and  many  of  the  so-called  miracles  of  other 
times  could  not  be  explained  by  these  newly-discovered 
agents  and  others  like  them.  Bold  men  said  Yes,  and 
with  good  reason.  The  next  question  could  not  be  long 
withheld,  viz.,  whether  the  miracles  of  Christ  and  the 
apostles  could  endure  the  scrutiny  of  the  new  sciences 
of  nature.  With  this  suggestion  began  a  formal  attack 
upon  the  possibility  of  these  miracles  and  the  competence 
and  honesty  of  those  who  reported  them.  These  assaults 
were  repeated  for  more  than  a  century  on  various  grounds, 
when  David  Hume  first  condensed  the  argument  that 
had  been  somewhat  loosely  stated  before  into  a  compact 
and  telling  form,  to  which  nothing  new  has  been  added 
up  to  the  present  time.  All  that  metaphysical  philosophy 
or  physical  science  has  been  able  to  say  in  varied  and 
imposing  forms  till  this  very  moment  is  contained  in  this 
famous  and  oft-repeated  argument.  Briefly  expressed  it 
is  this:  "It  is  contrary  to  all  experience  that  a  miracle 
should  be  wrought.  It  is  in  accordance  with  all  expe- 
rience, or  it  is  not  contrary  to  all  experience,  that  men 
should  lie  or  be  imposed  on.  Therefore,  when  a  miracle 
is  reported  to  me,  or  I  am  myself  a  witness  of  one,  I 
must  strike  the  balance  against  the  miracle."     "But  it 


i8o     MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT, 

does  not  follow,"  Hume  adds  with  a  sneer,  "  that  we  are 
forced  to  distrust  the  story  of  the  Christian  miracles,  in- 
asmuch as  we  have  the  supernatural  grace  of  faith  which 
justifies  us  in  making  an  exception  in  their  favor."  In 
other  words,  a  miracle  is  utterly  incredible,  and  any 
report  of  it  must  be  regarded  as  untrue.  This  argument 
gave  a  momentary  shock  to  the  Chi-istian  world.  For  a 
century  previous,  the  contest  had  been  earnest  between 
the  assailants  and  the  defenders  of  the  Christian  faith, 
but  these  two  or  three  short  and  direct  sentences  of 
Hume  were  a  succession  of  stunning  blows,  which  brought 
its  defenders  to  a  sudden  pause.  The  reason  why  they 
were  taken  at  a  disadvantage  and  somewhat  by  surprise, 
is  that  they  had  committed  their  cause  to  a  single  line 
of  defence.  Instead  of  relying  on  the  person  of  Christ, 
his  work,  and  his  message  as  adapted  to  the  wants  of 
man,  the  majesty  of  Christ's  person,  the  superhuman 
in  his  very  ideal,  the  truthfulness  of  his  words,  and  the 
adaptation  of  himself,  and  his  message  to  man  as  justi- 
fying and  requiring  the  supernatural  as  their  fitting  sign 
and  appropriate  accompaniment,  they  considered  the 
abstract  question  of  testimony  within  the  sphere  of  ordi- 
nary human  intercourse  and  human  history.  Instead  of 
testing  the  miracle  by  the  doctrine  and  justifying  the 
miracle  by  the  doctrine,  they  lowered  the  Christian  story 
to  a  level  with  an  ordinary  narration,  and  left  it  there  to 
stand  or  fall  by  the  number,  the  consistency,  and  the 
apparent  honesty  of  the  narrators. 

We  contend  that  the  argument  of  Hume  was  sound 


MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.      i8i 

and  ought  to  stand,  if  tried  by  these  tests.  In  ordi- 
nary matters  we  apply  it  every  day.  Let  a  man  tell 
me  or  you  that  in  Union  Square  he  saw  a  man  raise  a 
dead  man  to  life,  or  heal  a  sick  man  by  a  word,  I  should 
at  once  reply,  "I  do  not  believe  that  what  you  say  is 
true.  I  would  not  believe  it  on  the  testimony  of  a  hun- 
dred honest  men."  Why }  Because  it  is  contrary  to  ex- 
perience— or,  as  we  should  say  in  these  days,  it  is  con- 
trary to  the  known  laws  of  nature  that  such  an  event 
should  take  place.  Why,  then,  it  may  be  asked,  do  we 
not  apply  this  rule  to  similar  stories,  the  scene  of  which 
is  Jerusalem  or  Bethany,  and  the  time  is  some  1,850 
years  ago  .^  Simply  because  there  were  reasons  then 
and  there  for  the  occurrence  of  events  which  violate  the 
laws  of  nature,  such  as  cannot  be  urged  here  or  now. 
This  is  the  answer  which  ought  to  have  been  given  to 
Hume.  It  was  not  overlooked  by  many,  if  not  by  the 
most  of  the  able  men  who  replied  to  him,  but  it  was  not 
put  forth  as  the  decisive  element  in  the  argument. 
Thus  Paley  says,  "  Herein  I  remark  a  want  of  argu- 
mentative justice  that,  in  describing  the  importance  of 
miracles,  he  (Hume)  suppresses  all  those  circumstances 
of  extenuation  which  result  from  our  knowledge  of  the 
existence,  power,  and  disposition  of  the  Deity,  his  con- 
cern in  the  creation,  the  end  answered  by  the  miracles, 
the  importance  of  that  end,  and  its  subserviency  to  the 
plan  pursued  in  the  work  of  nature."  ''Evidences :'"  In- 
troduction. 

It  is  the  more  singular  that  the  opponents  of  Hume 

16 


i82      MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

should  have  failed  to  urge  this  decisive  argument  against 
him,  after  Locke  had,  many  years  before,  stated  it  in 
words  so  clear  and  emphatic : 

"  Though  the  common  experience  and  the  ordinary 
course  of  things  have  justly  a  mighty  influence  on  the 
minds  of  men  to  make  them  give  or  refuse  credit  to  any- 
thing proposed  to  their  belief,  yet  there  is  one  case 
wherein  the  strangeness  of  the  fact  lessens  not  the  as- 
sent to  a  fair  testimony  given  of  it.  For  when  such  su- 
pernatural events  are  suitable  to  ends  aimed  at  by  him 
who  has  the  power  to  change  the  course  of  nature,  then 
under  such  circumstances  they  may  be  the  fitter  to  pro- 
cure belief  by  how  much  the  more  they  are  beyond  or 
contrary  to  ordinary  observation.  This  is  the  proper 
case  of  miracles  which,  well  attested,  do  not  only  find 
credit  themselves,  but  give  it  to  other  truths  which  need 
such  confirmation."     Essay,  b.  4,  ch.  16,  §  13. 

For  their  failure  to  do  this,  the  relation  of  the  mirac- 
ulous to  experience  has  been  exposed  to  more  or  less 
misconstruction.  The  reply  of  Campbell  to  Hume  is  a 
fair  example  of  the  way  in  which  the  force  of  his  argu- 
ment was  evaded.  To  the  assertion  that  all  miracles 
are  contrary  to  experience,  and  therefore  incapable  of 
proof  by  testimony,  Campbell  urged  that  what  we  call 
experience  is  largely  made  up  of  human  testimony,  and 
so  far  is  as  untrustworthy  as  testimony ;  but  in  this  he 
overlooked  the  truth  that  in  incorporating  testimony  into 
experience,  every  man  tests  the  credibility  of  testimony 
by  experience,  as  he  throws  out  the  testimony  of  one  wit- 


MIRACLES  A.\D  MODERN  THOUGHT.      1S3 

ness  and  modifies  that  of  another.  Another  point  made 
by  Campbell  was,  that  the  argument  of  Hume  against 
the  Christian  miracles  would  hold  just  as  strongly  against 
every  narrative  and  all  testimony  concerning  events  that 
were  simply  extraordinary  or  not  conformable  to  our  ex- 
perience. For  example,  were  the  king  of  Siam  informed 
that  in  London  the  river  Thames  would,  of  a  night,  be- 
come so  solid  as  to  support  a  train  of  vehicles  and  a  pro- 
cession of  men,  he  ought,  on  Mr.  Hume's  principles,  to 
reject  the  testimony,  having  had,  as  was  likely,  very  am- 
ple experience  that  men  were  given  to  lying.  But  that 
this  position  is  not  well  taken  is  obvious  to  any  man 
who  reflects  that  the  turning  of  water  into  ice  could 
be  explained  as  the  result  of  a  law  of  nature  which  the 
king  of  Siam  could  be  made  to  understand,  and  there- 
fore is  in  no  sense  a  miracle,  but  simply  an  unusual,  and 
it  may  be,  a  very  surprising  event,  the  like  of  which  oc- 
curs in  the  experience  of  every  man. 

If  in  the  time  of  Hume,  then,  his  argument  was  irre- 
sistible as  against  all  stories  of  miracles,  except  when  a 
good  reason  can  be  given  for  their  occurrence,  its  force 
has  been  increased  a  thousand-fold  in  modern  times  and 
in  the  present  century.  Thinking  men,  and  especially 
men  who  have  to  do  with  physical  science,  have  become 
more  and  more  profoundly  impressed  with  the  inviolabil- 
ity of  the  laws  of  matter.  Every  time  an  eclipse  occurs, 
of  the  sun  or  the  moon  ;  on  the  rarer  occasions  on  which 
Venus  walks  like  a  dark  speck  across  the  disk  of  the  sun  ; 
at  the  thousand  times  every  day  in  which  the  navigator 


1 84     MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

finds  his  place  on  the  limitless  ocean  by  sextant  and 
chronometer,  or  comes  into  port  according  to  his  calcu- 
lations, there  is  a  new  confirmation  of  the  belief  that  the 
forces  of  nature  are  as  fresh  and  strong  as  at  the  first, 
and  are  as  true  to  the  laws  of  nature  as  from  the  be2:in- 
ning.  More  and  more  completely  does  the  conviction 
tgike  complete  possession  of  the  imagination  that  in  ordi- 
nary and  material  life  an  exception  is  never  to  be  thought 
of.  Every  day  some  fresh  force  or  new  element  is  dis- 
covered, or  some  unexpected  application  of  familiar  agen- 
cies breaks  out  upon  the  eye  of  the  astronomer  as  he 
searches  into  the  remotest  regions  of  space,  or  is  mani- 
fested to  the  chemist  as  he  unties  the  secret  chains  that 
have  hitherto  held  in  closely-locked  embrace  elements 
before  unknown,  or  to  the  student  of  natural  history  as 
he  reads  the  records  of  long-past  ages  in  the  hitherto  un- 
interpreted hieroglyphics  which  nature  has  impressed  or 
imbedded  in  her  rocky  tablets.  Even  the  secrets  of  the 
weather,  which  till  recently  were  hidden  from  all  except 
the  village  prophets  whose  predictions  were  conspicuous 
for  their  failures,  have  now  been  almost  mastered,  and  the 
prophecies  so  curiously  and  yet  so  confidently  or  so  cau- 
tiously ventured,  are  made  in  an  instant  the  property  of 
the  world.  Every  morning  bulletin  issued  from  the  sig- 
nal-service, every  cautionary  signal  that  floats  from  head- 
land or  tower,  reiterates  the  truth  that  the  laws  and 
forces  of  nature  remain  unchanged. 

Nor  is  it  alone  in  the  sphere  of  matter  that  the  reign 
of  law  extends  itself  more  and  more  widely  and  asserts 


MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.      185 

itself  with  more  and  more  positive  authority.  It  pushes 
its  way  into  spiritual  phenomena  as  well,  and  asserts  its 
right  to  be  applied  to  the  sciences  of  politics,  of  wealth, 
of  manners,  of  culture,  and  of  everything  which  we  call 
human  progress.  These  discoveries  contribute  to  deepen 
the  convictions  of  men  in  respect  to  the  strength  and 
the  universality  of  law  in  that  sphere  which  we  call  na- 
ture, including  in  nature  spirit  as  truly  as  matter. 

The  second  position  of  Hume,  that  men  are  both 
credulous  and  false,  especially  in  all  matters  that  relate 
to  the  supernatural  or  miraculous,  is  also  more  and  more 
confirmed  by  the  experiences  of  modern  life.  Pretended 
miracles  are  every  day  explained  by  natural  agencies. 
The  new  forms  in  which  credulity  and  weakness  bring  out 
their  wonders  are  sooner  or  later  seen  through  and  ex- 
posed. Men  are  more  than  ever  disposed  to  scrutinize 
and  suspect  every  species  of  overstatement,  especially  by 
persons  in  whom  the  aptitude  for  wonder  is  predomi- 
nant. I  do  not  say  that  credulity  is.  not  also  rampant; 
nor  that  the  boldest  and  the  most  unblushing  of  atheists 
in  matters  of  religion  are  not  sometimes  the  most  cred- 
ulous in  the  matter  of  their  private  superstitions  and 
hidden  mysticisms,  but  that  the  age  is,  on  the  whole, 
characteristically  and  reasonably  critical  of  all  stories  of 
the  miraculous. 

The  consequences  of  all  these  influences  may  be  thus 
summed  up :  Disbelief  in  the  possibility  of  miracles 
under  any  circumstances  is  now  positively  and  openly 

avowed  by  a  greater  number  of  persons  who  command 

16* 


1 86     MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

respect  in  the  name  of  science  and  philosophy,  of  criti- 
cisnj,  of  history  and  literature,  and  of  the  practical  knowl- 
edge of  man,  than  at  any  previous  period.  On  the  other 
hand,  I  believe  it  is  true  there  was  never  a  time  in  which 
the  belief  in  the  Christian  miracles  was  capable  of  being' 
so  triumphantly  defended,  on  grounds  of  science,  history, 
and  criticism,  as  at  the  present  moment.  It  is  my  task 
to  show  how  a  rational  faith  can  justify  itself  by  argu- 
ment against  the  more  and  more  confident  disbelief  of 
the  times. 

Of  this  argument  I  propose  to  give  only  a  brief  out- 
line. As  a  necessary  preliminary  to  this  argument,  I  must 
define  somewhat  carefully  the  conception  of  the  miracles 
which  Christianity  proposes  for  our  faith. 

First,  the  Christian  miracles  are  more  than  very  won- 
derful events  or  deeds.  The  word  miracle  means  literally 
any  event  so  extraordinary  or  strange  as  to  excite  wonder 
or  astonishment.  Every  miracle  is  indeed  worthy  of 
wonder,  but  not  every  wonderful  occurrence  is  a  miracle. 
It  follows  that  a  miracle  is  more  than  a  work  of  marvel- 
lous physical  power  or  intellectual  skill.  Miracles  are 
not  infrequently  called  in  the  Scriptures  mighty  works  or 
works  of  power.  It  does  not  follow  that  all  events  are 
miracles  which  illustrate  the  marvellous  power  or  wisdom 
of  God  in  nature  or  in  history.  When  the  Menai  bridge 
was  lifted  to  its  place  by  half-hidden  enginery,  and  depos- 
ited on  abutment  and  pier  as  quietly  and  gently  as  a  moth- 
er places  her  infant  in  its  cradle,  the  wondering  spectators 
might  very  naturally  have  shouted,  "This  is  a  miracle  of 


MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.      187 

strength  and  skill."  In  other  times,  had  the  great  engi- 
neer kept  his  secret  to  himself,  he  would  have  been  re- 
garded as  was  Simon  the  Sorcerer,  to  whom  a  whole  city 
gave  heed,  from  the  least  to  the  greatest,  saying,  "  This 
man  is  the  great  power  of  God."  But  in  these  times  no 
one  would  call  this  marvellous  feat  a  miracle,  because  it 
was  known  to  be  effected  by  scientific  genius.  When 
the  telegraphic  wires  were  stretched  from  Baltimore  to 
Washington,  the  first  message  that  was  sent  along  the 
lines  was.  What  hatJi  God  zuroiis'ht  !  In  these  words  the 
truth  was  recognized  that  a  wonderful  work  of  genius 
had  been  achieved  by  the  agency  of  God  in  this  extraor- 
dinary feat  of  human  sagacity,  but  no  man  supposes  that 
this  Divine  agency  was  miraculous.  When  the  news  of 
the  surrender  of  Gen.  Lee  was  flashed  along  these  same 
lines  to  this  city,  the  multitude  of  busy  traffickers  in 
Wall  street  gathered  in  the  street,  and  with  heads  bowed 
and  uncovered,  acknowledged  the  hand  of  God  in  the  sal- 
vation of  this  people,  but  no  one  believed  that  God  saved 
this  nation  by  a  series  of  miracles  because  he  wrought 
in  his  providence  through  the  forces  of  nature  and  the 
minds  of  men.  We  may  believe  that  God  in  some  sense 
inspired  Abraham  Lincoln — to  his  wise  candor,  his  gen- 
tle caution,  his  inflexible  resolve  and  his  faith  in  justice, 
as  also  to  his  words  of  matchless  eloquence;  but  we  pause 
before  we  assert  that  this  inspiration  was  miraculous. 
There  is  nothing  necessarily  supernatural  or  miraculous 
in  events  like  these. 

Next,  a  miracle  must  have  a  definite  import ;  it  must 


1 88     MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

signify  something  to  those  for  whom  it  is  wrought.  For 
this  reason  miracles  are  so  often  called  signs  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, whether  they  are  false  or  true.  Works  that  make 
man  wonder,  or  that  indicate  power  and  skill,  indicate 
something  uncommon  among  men ;  but  a  real  miracle 
indicates  an  agency  that  is  superhuman.  It  must  em- 
phatically declare  the  presence  and  activity  of  a  power 
above  the  forces  and  laws  of  matter  or  spirit.  It  must 
be  an  act  which  manifests  a  power  that  is  superior  to  any 
force  whatever  and  unbound  by  any  law.  It  must  even 
be  more  than  an  indisputable  manifestation  of  poiver. 
Should  the  stars  fly  from  their  courses,  or  the  sun  fail  to 
rise,  and  the  universe  be  thrown  into  chaos,  it  would 
manifest  a  presence  mightier  than  nature,  and  so  far  be 
a  sign  the  import  of  which  could  not  be  misunderstood. 
But  the  miracles  with  which  we  have  to  do  have  a  per- 
sonal and  moral  import.  While  they  indicate  and  en- 
force the  fact  of  God's  direct  and  supernatural  agency, 
they  also  convey  some  thought  or  feeling  from  God,  and 
enforce  some  response  of  act  or  feeling  upon  man.  For 
both  these  reasons  they  are  preeminently  signs  or  sig- 
nificant acts.  A  wonderful  event  that  does  not  signify 
something  is  no  miracle. 

Every  miracle  properly  so  called  is  also  a  matter  of  pub- 
lic concern,  and  therefore  must  be  wrought  in  open  day. 
It  is  not  impossible  that  an  act  in  all  other  respects  mi- 
raculous should  be  performed  in  presence  of  a  single 
individual  and  should  even  be  to  him  a  sign  of  God's  pow- 
er or  a  vehicle  of  God's  thoughts.     But  if  the  miracle 


MIRACLES  AXD  MODERN  THOUGHT,       189 

makes  any  claims  upon  the  public  confidence,  the  act 
must  be  openly  performed.  This  was  the  case  with  most 
of  the  Christian  miracles.  They  challenged  the  criticism 
of  open  day,  and  were  invariably  performed  in  the  sight 
of  all  the  people.  Whenever  testimony,  or  the  report  of 
others,  was  substituted  for  the  direct  witness  of  a  looker- 
on,  reference  was  always  made  to  bystanders,  and  the 
veracity  of  the  reporter  was  supported  if  required  by 
other  miracles.  When  Paul  told  the  story  of  how  Jesus 
met  him  near  Damascus  he  was  ready  to  enforce  his  own 
veracity  by  miracles  performed  by  himself  in  the  name 
of  Christ. 

I  emphasize  this  point  in  order  to  distinguish  the 
Christian  miracles  from  the  miserable  imitations  of  later 
years,  and  from  the  more  plausible  counterfeits  that  gain 
the  confidence  of  trusting  souls.  When  I  am  told 
that  Mormon  elders  can  heal  the  sick  and  raise  the 
dead  in  Utah,  I  have  a  right  to  ask  them  to  do  the  same 
in  New  York,  and  when  I  am  told  that  they  can  do 
and  have  done  similar  works  in  New  York  in  some  very 
private  places  and  upon  a  person  who  is  known  to  no 
one,  I  not  only  have  a  right  to  reject  the  story,  but  I 
am  sacredly  obliged  to  reject  the  story,  because  the  act 
lacks  openness  to  public  scrutiny.  When  I  hear  of  private 
manifestations  of  the  Virgin  Mary  or  of  Christ  himself  to 
this  or  that  person,  and  of  wonderful  cures  by  the  touch 
of  sacred  persons  and  sacred  garments,  I  say  at  once, 
these  events  are  not  done  in  public,  and  so  far  as  the  pub- 
lic faith  in  them  or  any  endorsement  of  them  is  con- 


I90     MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

cerned,  they  should  be  treated  as  fables  of  imagination  or 
impositions.  When,  too,  a  person  of  undoubted  honesty, 
filled  with  the  spirit  of  Christ,  asserts  that  he  or  she  was. 
healed  of  sickness  or  raised  from  the  dead,  by  the  direct 
power  of  God  in  answer  to  prayer,  I  am  not  forced  to 
argue  that  perhaps  he  was  mistaken,  or  that  the  event 
lacked  some  of  the  other  criteria  of  a  true  miracle.  I 
need  not  take  time  to  argue  that  a  wonder  of  heaUng  is 
not  a  miracle  of  healing.  I  might  concede  that  as  be- 
tween himself  and  God  the  event  was  a  miracle.  But  it 
is  nothing  to  other  men,  because  it  was  not  done  in  open 
day.  For  this  reason  it  is  treasonable  to  the  most  sacred 
truth  and  the  holiest  cause  to  report  it  in  public  as  a 
miracle.  I  go  very  much  farther  than  many  people  in  my 
views  of  what  may  happen  of  good  to  the  souls  and  bodies 
of  men  in  answer  to  prayer,  but  I  protest  in  the  name  of 
all  common  sense  and  in  the  name  of  Christ  himself  against 
the  insane  desire  manifested  in  some  Christian  people 
to  exalt  to  the  rank  of  miracles,  events  that  are  in  no  sense 
decisive  of  supernatural  power  and  which  lack  the  indis- 
pensable criterion  of  being  done  in  the  open  day,  and  before 
the  eyes  of  many  lookers-on.  I  call  the  tendency  insane, 
however  well  meant  it  may  be.  Its  effects  are  fearfully 
pernicious  in  bringing  into  dishonor  the  most  sacred  and 
separate  of  all  of  God's  acts  to  men.  The  Christian  cause 
ought  not  to  bear  the  burden  of  any  of  these  reported 
works  of  wonder  and  power  that  are  done  in  a  corner.  It 
follows  that  no  action  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  spirit 
of  man,  when  most  direct  and  powerful,  can  be  properly 


MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.       191 

considered  miraculous.  Even  if  we  allow  that  such  ac- 
tion is  supernatural  and  involves  an  arrest  of  the  forces 
of  nature,  it  lacks  every  one  of  the  other  elements  of  the 
miraculous.  It  may  be  as  surprising  and  show  as  much 
or  more  of  God,  but  it  does  not  impart  definite  teaching 
by  a  public  and  open  deed. 

Last  and  most  essential  of  all,  in  every  miraculous 
act  there  must  be  a  worthy  and  sufficient  occasion,  if  the 
act  is  to  be  accepted  as  miraculous.  We  cannot  believe, 
and  we  ought  not  to  believe,  that  the  laws  of  nature  will 
be  broken,  except  for  such  a  reason.  Such  a  reason  can 
only  be  furnished  in  the  attainment  of  some  end,  which 
the  observance  of  these  laws  cannot  reach.  I  would  not 
say  that  the  only  end  conceivable  is  to  accredit  a  messen- 
ger or  a  message  from  God.  If  a  work  of  superhuman 
power  is  required  to  impress  men  vividly  and  effectively 
with  the  nearness  of  God,  or  the  love  of  God,  or  the  ten- 
derness of  God  to  man,  such  a  necessity,  when  made 
manifest,  might  justify  the  miraculous  interposition  of 
God,  and  my  faith  in  such  an  interposition  in  fact.  But 
I  must  believe  that  God  will  respect  the  forces  of  nature 
which  he  has  made,  and  will  conform  to  the  laws  of  nature 
which  he  has  imposed  upon  these  forces,  unless  I  discern 
some  reason  which  requires  him  to  show  that  he  is  great- 
er than  these  forces,  and  the  master  of  these  laws.  This 
is  so  obvious  a  truth,  that  it  seems  surprising  that  it 
should  ever  have  been  overlooked.  Even  the  aesthetic 
sense  of  propriety  taught  a  pagan  poet  to  say,  who 
might  be  supposed    to  have  no  special  respect  for  the 


192      MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

gods  of  the  ancient  mythology,  that  a  god  should 
never  be  introduced  upon  the  stage  in  a  play,  unless 
there  was  an  occasion  that  required  and  justified  his 
presence.  How  much  more  must  this  be  true  of  the 
living  God,  in  whom  we  have  a  rational  faith,  and  of 
whom  our  conceptions  are  ever  more  and  more  grand 
and  reverential,  the  more  we  bring  him  home  to  our 
thoughts. 

Our  definition  of  a  miracle  will  have  prepared  us  to  ap- 
preciate the  reasons  for  believing  in  the  Christian  mira- 
cles. First  of  all,  such  miracles  "B^xq possible.  Every  man 
who  believes  in  God  must  believe  that  he  can  suspend  or 
override  the  forces  which  he  upholds,  and  set  aside  the 
laws  under  which  he  causes  them  to  act.  The  Atheist 
and  the  Pantheist  alone  can  deny  that  a  miracle  is  possi- 
ble ;  the  Atheist  because  there  is  no  God,  and  the  Pan- 
theist because  his  God  is  only  another  phrase  for  the 
finite  forces  and  laws  which  make  up  the  universe. 

There  are  Theists  who  object  to  the  assumption  that 
God  can  suspend  or  interrupt  the  laws  of  nature.  They 
are  so  deeply  possessed  of  the  idea  that  law  can  never  be 
broken,  and  that  God  is  bound  by  his  own  prescriptions, 
that  they  explain  the  supernatural  miracles  by  the  dis- 
placement of  one  force  by  another,  as  when  gravitation 
is  overcome  by  muscular  effort,  or  mental  force  acts 
against  and  overrules  bodily  tendencies.  In  like  man- 
ner, they  reason,  God  may  have  some  unknown  force  or 
law  in  reserve,  by  which  he  brings  to  pass  the  most 
wonderful  effects  and  signs.     Others  have  gone  farther, 


MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.      193 

and  contended  that  there  may  be  some  provision  in  na- 
ture from  the  first,  by  which  at  the  precise  moment  the 
hidden  force  required  should  come  into  action,  as  a 
clock  might  be  supposed  to  play  a  tune  once  in  thirty 
days,  or  a  calculating  machine  to  bring  out  a  peculiar 
series  of  numbers  at  the  millionth  turn  of  a  wheel.  It 
is  far  more  rational  to  say  that  the  God  who  created  the 
forces  and  laws  of  nature,  never  ceases  to  uphold  its  forces 
and  enforce  its  laws.  In  this  regard  he  is  nearer  to  na- 
ture than  the  soul  of  man  is  to  his  body.  He  can  there- 
fore override  every  force  by  a  higher  force  ;  but  this  high- 
er force  is  no  created  energy,  but  his  creative  fiat — his 
will — whose  function  is  to  suspend  every  other  force, 
and  to  control  every  law. 

Every  disturbance  that  might  occur  in  consequence 
he  can  avoid  by  the  same  energy  by  which  he  suspends 
any  natural  force.  Should  he  arrest  a  planet  in  its  or- 
bit, he  could  provide  all  the  compensations  that  might  be 
required  to  avert  or  check  or  turn  aside  the  results  that 
might  otherwise  ensue.  His  hand  is  not  only  on  the 
driving  lever  that  starts  and  stops  and  regulates  the  en- 
gine,  but  his  presence  and  spirit  are  in  all  the  wheels, 
and  pulsate  in  that  vast  organization  which  we  call  the 
universe  of  matter  and  spirit.  For  God  to  suspend  a 
force  or  break  a  law,  is,  however,  never  a  lawless  or  an 
unreasonable  act.  Every  miracle  is  performed  for  some 
reason.  No  force  of  nature  is  ever  suspended,  no  law  is 
broken,  except  to  reveal  a  present  and  personal  God,  and 
to  enforce  a  sense  of   his  presence  which  is  yet  above 

17 


194      MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

nature,  by  some  manifestation  through  nature,  in  order 
that  some  impressive  moral  or  spiritual  lesson  may  be 
conveyed. 

It  follows  that  a  story  of  a  miracle  is  credible  when- 
ever a  sufficient  reason  for  its  occurrence  can  be  given 
or  supposed.  We  believe  that  the  laws  of  nature  may 
and  ought  to  be  broken  for  the  same  reason  that  in 
ordinary  cases  we  believe  that  they  stand  fast.  This 
may  sound  like  a  paradox,  but  it  is  nevertheless  true. 
The  question  is  not  put  to  the  scientists  of  our  time 
half  so  often  as  it  should  be,  nor  pressed  with  half  the 
urgency  which  is  warranted.  What  are  the  grounds  on 
which  you  assume  that  the  laws  of  nature  are  unbroken, 
or,  in  the  language  of  Hume,  that  a  miracle  is  contrary  to 
experience }  Hume  himself  confesses  that  he  cannot  an- 
swer this  question.  I  give  his  own  language :  "  If  we  ask 
what  is  the  foundation  of  all  conclusions  from  experience, 
this  implies  a  new  question  which  may  be  of  more  diffi- 
cult solution."  The  solution  he  gives  in  another  passage, 
"  experimental  reasoning  itself  which  we  possess  in  com- 
mon with  beasts,  is  nothing  but  a  species  of  instinct  or 
mechanical  power  that  acts  in  us,  unknown  to  ourselves." 
The  atheist  can  give  no  answer  than  that  these  laws 
►never  in  fact  have  been  broken.  The  materialistic  evo- 
lutionist is  in  a  worse  plight,  for  on  his  particular  theory 
he  must  assume  an  unbroken  regularity  of  laws  for  bill- 
ions of  ages,  during  which  he  asserts  a  great  many 
things  have  taken  place  which  are  entirely  contradicted 
by  the  experience  of  the  post-historic  period,  which  are 


MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.      195 

marvels  if  they  are  not  miracles,  and  would  scarcely 
stand  the  test  of  Hume's  argument.  The  theist  alone 
has  a  solution  for  his  faith  in  the  order  of  nature  and  the 
fixedness  of  law.  That  explanation  is  the  absolute  neces- 
sity of  both  for  the  harmony  of  the  universe  and  the  well- 
being  of  its  sentient  creatures,  and  for  the  possibility  of 
science  itself.  Without  such  order  we  could  neither  cat 
nor  sleep  with  any  confidence ;  we  could  neither  light  a 
fire  nor  provide  our  food ;  we  could  gather  no  wisdom 
from  the  past  and  provide  no  stores  for  the  future;  we 
could  exercise  no  prudence  and  achieve  no  philosophy. 
It  is  not  because  we  have  found  by  experience  that  these 
forces  remain  and  these  laws  are  unbroken  that  we  rest 
in  the  conclusion  that  the  order  of  nature  is  permanent, 
but  it  is  because  we  believe  that  such  order  ought  to 
be  observed  in  a  universe  of  reason  and  goodness.  We 
do  indeed  find  that  what  we  know  ought  to  be  is  actually 
realized  in  our  verified  experience ;  but  it  is  because  of 
the  reason  why,  rather  than  because  of  the  fact  observed, 
that  we  believe  this  permanent  order  under  which  our  ri- 
sing and  our  rest,  our  business  and  our  pleasure,  so 
confidently  proceed. 

I  venture  the  remark  by  way  of  digression,  that  in 
point  of  fact  this  faith  in  law  and  order  is  the  product  of 
those  conceptions  of  nature  as  related  to  God,  which  the 
Jewish  and  Christian  theism  have  enforced  upon  the  faith 
of  the  world  by  miracles.  I  find  this  doctrine  in  an  old 
book:  "  For  ever,  O  Lord,  thy  word  is  settled  in  heaven. 
Thy  faithfulness  is  unto  all  generations,  thou  hast  estab- 


196     MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

lished  the  earth  and  it  abideth.  They  continue  this  day 
according  to  thine  ordinances,  for  all  are  thy  servants."  I 
find  also  that  the  great  physicists  who  developed  and 
fixed  our  modern  notions  of  the  forces  and  laws  of  nature, 
and  wrought  out  the  theory  of  deduction  on  which  modern 
science  has  been  reared,  were  every  one  of  them  positive 
and  even  devout  theists.  Such  were  Bacon,  Descartes, 
Leibnitz,  Newton,  and  Locke.  Very  earnest  efforts  have 
been  made  of  late  to  persuade  the  confiding  if  not  the 
credulous  public  that  Christian  theology  has  always  been 
the  natural  and  persistent  foe  of  science.  It  would  be  easy 
to  show  that  the  accepted  theory  of  modern  scientific 
research  was  the  indirect  result  of  that  view  of  nature 
which  theism  implies,  viz.,  the  conception  of  a  universe 
which  was  pervaded  by  order  and  law.  In  oth@r  words, 
the  theory  of  experimental  physics  was  born  of  Christian 
theism. 

We  return  to  our  argument.  We  believe  that  a 
miracle  is  credible  whenever  it  is  required  for  any  worthy 
end  which  God  may  propose,  for  the  same  reason  that  we 
believe  in  the  unbroken  reign  of  law  in  the  ordinary 
routine  of  nature,  because  of  the  ends  which  this  dominion 
of  law  will  subserve.  We  believe  that  the  laws  of  nature 
may  be  broken  when  the  occasion  requires,  for  the  same 
reason  that  we  believe  them  to  be  unbroken  in  the  ordi- 
nary routine  of  life. 

Not  only  is  a  miracle  credible,  but  it  becomes  prob- 
able, when  the  occasion  justifies  it.  The  end  proposed 
in  a  miracle  may  not  only  justify  our  reason  in  believing 


MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.      197 

it,  it  may  even  require  this  faith  of  both  reason  and  con- 
science. 

The  occasion  for  the  Christian  miracles  was  to  call 
attention  to  Christ's  claims  as  the  manifestation  of  God 
to  man,  and  to  enforce  these  claims  by  deeds  and  events 
that  made  them  good.  The  attention  of  men  must  first 
be  aroused  and  held  fast.  Belief  must  ensue,  in  order  that 
Christ's  words  and  life  and  death  might  gain  man's  obe- 
dience and  love.  If  this  is  so,  the  one  and  only  question 
which  we  need  to  ask  is  this,  Has  man  any  such  occa- 
sion for  a  Being  like  Christ,  as  would  justify  His  being 
introduced  to  man's  dwelling-place  and  his  history  by 
events  clearly  supernatural }  To  every  man  who  asks 
this  question  I  would  answer.  Think  of  what  man  was 
without  Christ  and  think  of  what  he  has  become  through 
faith  in  Christ,  man  as  a  community  and  man  singly. 
Look  squarely  in  the  face  the  fact  that  man  is  a 
sinner  and  as  such  is  self-condemned,  and  needs  the  assu- 
rance as  clear  as  Christ's  words  and  life  and  death  can 
make  it,  that  God  is  willing  to  forgive  him — that  man  is 
weak  and  needs  Christ's  help  and  sympathy — that  he  is 
going  into  an  unknown  land,  where  nothing  is  definite  but 
the  darkness  made  visible  by  the  wandering  ghosts  of  his 
own  sins  waiting  to  shame  and  torment  him,  and  that  for 
these  needs  Christ  is  all — but  no  more  than  all — that  he 
wants.  Think  what  Christ  has  done  for  all  honest  be- 
lievers who  have  in  good  faith  taken  him  to  be  the  ruler 
and  joy  of  their  being.       If  man    needs   him  so   much 

and  Christ  is  to  man  what  his  life  and  words  declare  him  to 

17* 


198      MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT. 

be,  and  what  the  simple  behef  in  Christ,  whether  he  be  a 
fiction  or  a  fact,  tends  to  make  of  every  man,  then  not  only 
is  it  credible  that  he  wrought  the  miracles  that  are  re- 
ported, but  the  story  of  such  a  Christ  would  be  incredi- 
ble without  miracles.  Once  admit  that  man  is  in  this 
need,  and  that  Christ  is,  and  brings  this  help,  and  the 
miracles  in  the  history  make  the  history  itself  more 
credible.  They  strengthen  the  story  immensely.  The 
Christian  story  without  the  miracles  ought  to  be  rejected 
as  untrue.  Should  we  lower  man's  need  to  a  mere  inci- 
dental ignorance  or  want  of  culture  in  morals  and  civili- 
zation, and  Christ's  mission  to  a  desirable  but  not  indis- 
pensable supplement  to  these  wants,  we  ought  to  reject 
the  miraculous  in  the  history,  embarrassing  and  impossi- 
ble as  it  confessedly  is  to  give  any  rational  explanation  of 
how  such  a  story  came  to  be  written  or  believed  if  it  is 
false. 

We  are  brought,  then,  to  this  issue.  Is  what  is  usu- 
ally called  nature  the  whole  of  the  universe  }  Or  if  you 
enlarge  the  conception  of  nature,  so  as  to  take  into  it 
spiritual  beings  who  are  immortal,  are  all  their  interests 
limited  to  power,  wealth,  enjoyment,  to  social  affection, 
culture,  art,  and  civilization,  and  even  to  character — if 
you  leave  out  of  character  responsibility  to  one's  self  and 
to  God,  with  its  results  of  confirmed  sin  or  confirmed 
holiness — are  these  all  that  man  should  care  for,  or  all 
that  God  does  care  for.^  If  there  is  more,  this  out- 
weighs all  the  rest.  If  man  is  responsible,  then  he  is 
guilty  and  weak,  and   needs  forgiveness  and  help.     He 


MIRACLES  AND  MODERN  THOUGHT.      199 

also  needs  the  assurance  of  both  in  such  form  that  he 
cannot  doubt  the  reality  and  cannot  help  being  moved  by 
the  love.  In  one  word,  he  needs  the  supernatural  and 
the  miraculous  Christ,  just  the  Christ  of  the  gospel  story, 
and  he  needs  him  more  than  anything  and  everything 
besides.  If  there  is  a  living  and  loving  God,  shall  he 
not  supply  this  want }  If,  in  order  to  supply  it,  he  must 
meet  man  with  such  miraculous  works  as  break  through 
the  order  of  nature  in  order  to  manifest  his  presence,  shall 
we  believe  the  story  the  less  or  the  more  because  it  re- 
cords supernatural  deeds }  Well  might  Coleridge  say, 
"  Evidences  of  Christianity  !  I  am  weary  of  the  phrase — 
make  a  man  feel  his  need  of  Christianity,  and  give  him 
right  conceptions  of  what  Christianity  is,  and  he  cannot 
but  believe  it  to  be  from  God,  and  this  by  a  most  natural 
and  rational  judgment." 

And  here  I  leave  the  argument,  with  a  single  word  of 
application  to  those  who  teach  in  Sunday-schools  or  Bible- 
classes.  If  you  would  relieve  the  difficulties  which  any 
members  of  your  classes  may  feel  concerning  the  subject 
of  miracles,  you  can  only  do  this  by  making  them  under- 
stand that  they  need  Christ  and  that  Christ  can  be  some- 
thing to  them.  This  conviction,  this  feeling  of  need, 
must  be  the  background  to  every  one  of  your  arguments 
concerning  the  truth  of  the  Christian  story.  To  make 
these  truths  fresh  and  vivid  to  your  pupils  they  must  be 
always  fresh  and  vivid  to  yourselves.  Strive  after  this, 
for  your  own  sake  as  well  as  for  theirs. 


Method  of  Jesus  Christ 


AS 


TEACHER 


REV.   GEORGE  DANA  BOARDMAN,  D.  D., 

PASTOR  OF  THE  FIRST  BAPTIST  CHURCH,  PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 


Method 


OF 

JESUS  CHRIST  AS  TEACHER. 


"  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  Jesus  had  ended  these  sayings,  the  peo- 
were  astonished  at  his  doctrine :  for  he  taught  them  as  one  having  au- 
thority, and  not  as  the  scribes."     Matthew  7 :  28,  29. 

JESUS    CHRIST    A    TEACHER. 

Such  are  the  words  with  which  the  sacred  chronicler 
closes  his  report  of  that  group  of  matchless  sayings 
to  which  the  Christian  world  has  given  the  title,  ''  The 
Sermon  on  the  Mount."  And  yet  this  title  is  almost  a 
misnomer.  This  group  of  sayings  is  not  a  discourse  :  it 
is  neither  an  oration,  nor  an  argumentation,  nor  an  ex- 
postulation: it  is  strictly  an  instruction.  "Seeing  the 
multitudes,  he  went  up  into  the  mountain  :  and  when  he 
had  sat  down,  [and  sitting  was  the  usual  posture  of  the 
Jewish  teacher,]  he  opened  his  mouth  and  taught  them, 
saying."  "And  it  came  to  pass,  when  Jesus  had  ended 
these  sayings,  the  multitude  were  astonished  at  his  doc- 
trine, /.  e.  teaching,  for  he  taught  them  as  one  having 
authority,  and  not  as  the  scribes." 


204  yESUS  CIIJ^IST  AS  TEACHER, 

Nor  is  this  the  only  occasion  on  which  Jesus  Christ  is 
set  before  us  as  a  teacher.  Forty-four  other  times  in  the 
Gospels  is  the  verb  teach  applied  to  him  :  ten  other 
times  are  his  sayings  spoken  of  as  a  doctrine,  i.  e.y  teach- 
ing :  forty  times  is  he  mentioned  as  master,  i.  e.,  teacher  : 
two  hundred  and  twenty  times  are  his  followers  called 
disciples,  i.  e.,  learners.  A  meaningful  fact  surely,  fairly 
challenging  study.  May  the  Spirit  of  truth  then  espe- 
cially help  us  as  we  ponder  the  following  theme : 

THEME  :  TPIE  METHOD  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  AS  TEACHER. 
THE    TREATMENT    PROPOSED. 

In  treating  this  topic  we  probably  cannot  do  better 
than  to  follow  the  order  suggested  by  the  text,  treating 
it  first  negatively  and  then  affirmatively. 

I.   HOW  JESUS  CHRIST  DID  NOT  TEACH. 

And  first,  negatively,  the  way  in  which  Jesus  Christ 
did  not  teach. 

HE  DID  NOT  TEACH  RABBINICALLY. 

Let  the  text  itself  suggest  our  first  point :  he  did  not 
teach  rabbinically,  i.  e.,  as  the  scribes. 

The  scribes,  you  hardly  need  be  reminded,  were  the 
authorized  teachers  of  the  land.  Their  principal  business 
was  to  interpret  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  particularly  the 
Law  of  Moses.  Springing  up  as  a  separate  order  about 
the  time  of  the  return  from  the  Babylonian  captivity, 
when  the   Hebrew  speech  was  losing  itself  in  the  Ara- 


yESC/S  CHRIST  AS  TEACHER.  205 

mean,  they  were  originally  a  noble  class  of  men,  doing 
a  noble  service.  But  in  the  time  of  our  Lord,  they  had 
become  fearfully  degenerate.  In  their  idolatry  of  the 
letter  they  had  lost  sight  of  the  spirit.  Their  interpre- 
tation had  become  superficial,  technical,  trivial,  hollow, 
heartless.  The  religion  of  Abraham  and  Moses  and 
David  and  Isaiah  and  Malachi,  they  had  smothered  be- 
neath the  lumber  of  traditions  and  the  dead  weight  of 
precedents.  They  had  become  wretched  casuists,  rais- 
ing questions  ridiculously  puerile,  such,  e.  g.,  as  this  :  *'  If 
a  man  should  be  born  with  two  heads,  on  which  forehead 
must  he  wear  the  phylactery  T  Thus  they  were  forever 
vexing  the  consciences  of  men  by  binding  on  their 
shoulders  heavy  burdens  and  grievous  to  be  borne,  subtly 
discriminating  between  swearing  by  the  temple  and  by 
the  gold  of  the  temple,  tithing  mint  and  rue  and  anise 
and  cummin  and  all  manner  of  herbs,  but  passing  over 
the  weightier  matters  of  the  law,  judgment,  mercy,  faith, 
and  the  love  of  God,  straining  out  gnats,  but  swallow- 
ing camels,  rejecting  the  commandment  of  God  and 
making  his  word  of  none  effect,  that  they  might  keep 
their  own  tradition.  In  short,  beneath  the  teachinsf  of 
these  scribes,  who  had  taken  the  seat  of  Moses,  all  had 
become  formal,  artificial,  rigid,  technical,  arbitrary,  pe- 
dantic, microscopic,  rotative,  slavish,  hollow,  icy :  every 
duty  duly  labelled  and  pigeon-holed. 

Not  so  did  Jesus  Christ  teach.  No  teaching  was  ever 
fresher  or  more  vitalizing  than  his.  So  far  was  he  from 
idolizing  the  letter  that  in   his   quotations  from  law  or 

18 


2o6  yESUS  CHRIST  AS  TEACHER. 

prophet  he  was  generally  content  with  quoting  the 
thought  rather  than  the  word.  He  did  not  load  down 
the  memory  of  his  pupils  with  citations  of  traditions 
from  Hillel  the  Looser,  or  of  precedents  from  Shammai 
the  Binder.  Nor  did  he  oppress  their  consciences  with 
numerous  and  tiny  regulations,  or  vex  them  with  gos- 
samer distinctions  and  phantom  conceits :  he  did  not 
turn  religion  into  a  rubric  or  character  into  a  mummy. 
In  short,  he  did  not  teach  as  the  scribes. 


NOR  SYSTEMATICALLY. 

Again :  Jesus  Christ  did  not  teach  systematically ; 
that  is  to  say,  according  to  what  we  would  call  a  scien- 
tific method.  In  his  instructions  there  is  no  appearance 
of  elaboration,  no  show  of  logic.  Look  at  this  Instruc- 
tion of  the  Mount.  It  is  the  most  formal  and  elaborate 
of  his  teachings,  for  it  is  his  pronunciamento  as  the  new 
King.  And  yet  nothing  could  be  simpler,  or  more  free 
from  all  signs  of  study.  It  has  no  firstlies,  secondlies, 
thirdlies.  It  does  not  suggest  Aristotle's  Dialectics,  or 
Calvin's  Syllogisms,  or  Buckle's  Statistics.  In  fact,  it  is 
so  informal  as  to  baffle  any  natural  analysis.  And  so 
with  all  his  teachings.  Not  that  there  is  no  plan  in 
them,  or  no  philosophy  in  his  religion.  He  is  profound- 
ly systematic.  But  his  system  is  the  natural  meander- 
ing of  the  river,  not  the  artificial  course  of  the  canal. 
To  the  student  of  nature  there  is  more  method  in  a  cedar 
of  Lebanon  than  in  the  Temple  of  Solomon. 


yESUS  CHRIST  AS  TEACHER.  207 

NOR  RHETORICALLY. 

Once  more :  Jesus  Christ  did  not  teach  rhetorically. 
The  thought  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  him  of 
substituting  aesthetics  for  religion,  literature  for  dogma, 
culture  for  righteousness.  Look  at  his  instructions.  In 
vain  shall  you  search  for  finely-turned  sentences,  ornate 
amplifications,  brilliant  flights,  elegant  allusions,  learned 
quotations  from  the  hermeneutics  of  Hillel,  or  the  theol- 
ogy of  Zoroaster,  or  the  metaphysics  of  Plato,  or  the  poe- 
try of  Virgil.  His  language  is  the  language  of  the  com- 
mon people.  And  yet  unstudied  and  homely  as  it  is,  it 
involves  the  lore  of  the  eternities. 

IL    HOW  JESUS  CHRIST  DID  TEACH. 

And  so  we  pass  to  consider,  secondly  and  affirma- 
tively, the  way  in  which  Jesus  Christ  did  teach. 

HE  TAUGHT  AUTHORITATIVELY. 

One  word  summarizes  it:  it  is  the  word  authority. 
*'  When  Jesus  had  ended  these  sayings,  the  people  were 
astonished  at  his  teaching  :  for  he  taught  them  as  one 
having  authority,  and  not  as  the  scribes." 

AUTHORITY  OF  CONSCIOUS  AUTHORITY. 

And,  first :  Jesus  Christ  taught  with  the  authority  of 
one  who  was  conscious  of  authority. 

Look  at  this  Instruction  on  the  Mount.  How  in- 
tense the  personality  which  pervades  it.     Six  times  does 


2o8  3^ESUS  CHRIST  AS  TEACHER, 

this  untitled  Rabbi  from  Nazareth  plant  himself  in  open 
opposition  to  the  scribes,  joining  issue,  be  it  observed, 
not  with  Moses,  but  with  the  authorized  interpreters  of 
Moses,  boldly  overturning  the  misinterpretations  of  cen- 
turies :  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said  to  them  of  old 
time But  I  say  to  you."  Or  look  at  his  other  in- 
structions. How  sublime  their  egotism !  Yes,  look  at 
this  very  word  'Eyw :  "  I  am  the  bread  of  life ;"  "  I  am 
the  light  of  the  world  ;"  "  Before  Abraham  was,  I  am  ;" 
"  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life ;"  "  I  am  the  way, 
the  truth,  and  the  life  ;"  "  I  am  the  Alpha  and  the  Ome- 
ga, the  first  and  the  last,  the  beginning  and  the  end." 
How  imperial  the  sovereignty  which  is  stamped  on  every 
saying  of  his.  From  first  to  last  it  is  a  very  king  who 
speaks,  conjugating  all  life  in  the  imperative  mood.  His 
very  sayings  are  decisive  of  destinies.  Dogmatic  he  was 
not,  and  yet  he  was  dogmatic.  Listen  :  "  Whosoever  hear- 
eth  these  sayings  of  mine,  and  doeth  them,  I  will  liken 
him  unto  a  wise  man,  which  built  his  house  upon  a  rock  : 
and  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and  the 
winds  blew,  and  beat  upon  that  house  ;  and  it  fell  not, 
for  it  was  founded  upon  a  rock.  And  every  one  that 
heareth  these  sayings  of  mine,  and  doeth  them  not,  shall 
be  likened  unto  a  foolish  man,  which  built  his  house  upon 
the  sand :  and  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came, 
and  the  winds  blew  and  beat  upon  that  house ;  and  it 
fell :  and  great  was  the  fall  of  it."  Listen  again  :  "  He 
that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath  everlasting  life :  and  he 
that  believeth  not  the  Son  shall  not  see  life;  but  the 


yESUS  CHRIST  AS  TEACHER.  209 

wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him."  Listen  once  more  :  "  Go 
ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature.  He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall  be 
saved ;  but  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned."  If 
this  is  not  authority,  what  is  authority } 

AUTHORITY  OF  ELEMENTALS. 

Again  :  Jesus  Christ  taught  with  the  authority-  of  one 
who  dealt  in  elementals. 

For  observe  the  precise  purpose  for  which  Jesus 
Christ  came  into  the  world  as  teacher.  He  came  not  to 
instruct  men  in  secular  matters.  He  came  not  to  teach 
astronomy  or  geology  or  physiology  or  metaphysics  or 
economics  or  arts.  True,  he  might  have  taught  all  this. 
The  Lord  of  nature  might  have  anticipated  the  discover- 
ies of  a  Copernicus,  a  Columbus,  a  Harvey,  a  Faraday. 
But  he  knew  that  all  such  discoveries  belong  to  the  inci- 
dental and  mortal  part  of  our  being,  and  could  sooner  or 
later  be  wrought  out  by  man's  own  powers,  and  so  he 
left  all  such  things  to  follow  the  law  of  unfolding.  What 
he  came  to  teach  was  what  man  could  not  learn  without 
supernatural  disclosure.  What  he  came  to  teach  was 
not  incidentals,  but  essentials  ;  not  ephemerals,  but  eter- 
nals ;  not  facts,  but  truths.  "  To  this  end  was  I  bom, 
and  for  this  cause  came  I  into  the  world,  that  I  should 
bear  witness  unto  the  truth."  Yes,  Jesus  Christ  came 
into  the  world  to  attest  the  existence  of  unseen,  elemen- 
tal, eternal  realities. 

And  how  profound  and  radical  his  teachings  !     How 

18* 


2IO  yESUS  CHRIST  AS  TEACHER. 

utterly  free  from  all  pettiness  of  details — from  all  that  is 
merely  incidental  and  transient!  e.g.y  the  Lord  does  not 
tell  us  how  often  to  pray,  or  how  much  to  give,  or  when 
to  go  to  church,  or  what  to  do  and  what  not  to  do  on  the 
Sabbath-day.  And  yet  many  persons  imagine  that  if 
they  could  know  such  things  as  these,  they  would  master 
the  chief  problems  of  the  Christian  life.  It  is  a  pro- 
found misconception  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ. 
No  martinet  disciplinarian  is  he,  turning  life  into  a  mi- 
nute and  perennial  drill,  where  all  is 

"Faultily  faultless,  icily  regular,  splendidly  null." 

No,  he  does  not  tell  us  what  to  do  so  much  as  what  to 
be  ;  for  if  we  are  what  we  ought  to  be,  he  knows  that  we 
will  do  what  we  ought  to  do.  He  does  not  purify  the 
stream  of  life  by  undertaking  to  purify  each  separate 
drop  as  it  rushes  along ;  he  purifies  life  at  its  fountain. 
He  grapples  with  living,  immortal,  transcendent  issues, 
even  the  issue  of  a  Godlike  character :  "  Be  ye  perfect, 
even  as  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  is  perfect." 

But  let  us  take  some  particular  specimen  of  the 
depth  of  Christ's  method.  Observe,  e.  g.,  how  he  in- 
terprets the  law  of  murder :  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it 
was  said  by  them  of  old  time.  Thou  shalt  not  kill ;  and 
whosoever  shall  kill  shall  be  in  danger  of  the  judgment : 
but  I  say  unto  you.  That  whosoever  is  angry  with  his 
brother  without  a  cause  shall  be  in  danger  of  the  judg- 
ment :  and  whosoever  shall  say  to  his  brother,  Raca, 
[worthless  fellow,]  shall  be  in  danger  of  the  council :  but 


yESUS  CHRIST  AS  TEACHER.  211 

whosoever  shall  say,  Mareh,  [fool,]  shall  be  in  clanger  of 
hell  fire."  According  to  the  Mountain  Teacher,  then, 
murder  is  not  an  act,  but  a  thought ;  not  a  question  of 
standing  in  the  eyes  of  the  community,  but  of  charac- 
ter in  the  eyes  of  the  All-seeing.  No  murder  was  ever 
committed  which  did  not  besfin  in  the  heart :  "  Out  of 
the  heart  proceed  evil  thoughts,  murders,  adulteries,  for- 
nications, thefts,  false  witness,  blasphemies."  The  mur- 
der is  not  in  the  pistol  or  the  bludgeon  or  the  arsenic, 
nor  yet  in  the  hand  that  wields  them,  nor  even  in  the 
volition  that  wields  the  hand  :  the  murder  is  in  the  angry 
feeling  that  originates  the  volition.  All  life,  good  and 
bad,  starts  from  e^erms.  Thus  radical  is  the  Great  Teach- 
er's  method.  His  teaching  is  more  than  elementary  ;  it 
is  elemental :  his  school  the  world's  true  and  everlasting 
Seminary.  Precepts  he  transfigures  into  principles,  stat- 
utes into  character,  rules  into  life.  Himself  the  true 
Lawgiver  on  the  true  Sinai,  he  transcribes  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments from  tablets  of  stone,  writing  them  on  tablets 
of  heart.  And  so  he  rears  an  internal  Sinai,  whose  qua- 
kings  shall  shake  the  very  foundations  of  the  soul,  start- 
ling the  dullest  conscience  and  preluding  the  thunder- 
peals of  the  Judgment-day. 

AUTHORITY  OF   NATURE. 

Again  :  Jesus  Christ  taught  with  the  authority  of  one 
who  appeals  to  nature. 

Were  I  asked  to  describe,  in  the  briefest  expression 
possible,  the  method  of  Jesus  Christ  as  teacher,  I  would 


212  y^ESUS  CHRIST  AS  TEACHER. 

answer :  He  was  a  parable  speaker.  That  this  is  a  just 
description  will  be  evident  from  a  simple  enumeration  of 
some  of  his  parables,  thus :  The  Sower,  The  Tares,  The 
Seed  growing  secretly.  The  Mustard  Seed,  The  Leaven, 
The  Unsought  Treasure,  The  Sought  Pearl,  The  Drawn 
Net,  The  Two  Debtors,  The  Merciless  Servant,  The 
Good  Samaritan,  The  Rich  Fool,  The  King's  Marriage 
F'east,  The  Fig-tree,  The  Great  Supper,  The  Recovered 
Sheep,  The  Recovered  Coin,  The  Recovered  Son,  The 
Dishonest  Steward,  Dives  and  Lazarus,  The  Unjust 
Judge,  The  Pharisee  and  the  Publican,  The  Two  Sons, 
The  Vineyard  Laborers,  The  Pounds,  The  Talents,  The 
Wicked  Husbandman,  The  Ten  Virgins,  The  Sheep  and 
the  Goats.  These  are  but  specimens  of  the  Great 
Teacher's  recorded  parables.  And  the  evangelists  hint 
that  he  uttered  very  many  parables  which  they  did  not 
record  :  "  All  these  things  spake  Jesus  in  parables  to  the 
multitudes,  and  without  a  parable  he  spake  nothing  to 
them  ;  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  through 
the  prophet,  saying,  I  will  open  my  mouth  in  parables, 
I  will  utter  things  which  have  been  kept  secret  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world."  In  fact,  erase  from  the  records 
of  Christ's  sayings  all  he  has  said  in  form  of  parable,  and 
figure,  and  metaphor,  leaving  only  what  he  taught  in 
distinct  statements,  and  how  comparatively  meagre  the 
residue  ! 

And  there  are  immense  advantages  in  the  parable 
method  of  instruction.  In  the  first  place,  there  is  a  deep 
foundation  for  the  parable  method  in  the  very  nature  of 


JESUS  CHRIST  AS  TEACHER.  213 

things  ;  that  is  to  say,  in  the  correspondence  which  exists 
between  things  spiritual  and  things  natural.  "All 
things,"  says  the  son  of  Sirach,  *'are  double,  the  one 
against  the  other."  It  is  a  profound  saying.  The  bless- 
ed truth  is,  there  are  two  Bibles,  both  issuing  from  the 
same  Divine  Author;  the  one,  (Psa.  19:1-6,)  the  Bible 
of  the  Unwritten  Word,  or  the  Lex  non  Scripta  :  the 
other,  (Psa.  19:7-11,)  the  Bible  of  the  Written  Word,  or 
the  Lex  Scripta :  or  rather,  the  one  Bible  is  in  two  vol- 
umes, the  volume  of  Scripture  and  the  volume  of  Nature, 
and  the  volume  of  Nature  is  the  volume  of  Scripture  il- 
lustrated. Yes,  there  is  a  deep  foundation  for  the  para- 
ble method  in  the  nature  all  around  us.  Again :  the 
visible  world  supplies  us  with  the  aptest  and  most  effec- 
tive illustrations  of  the  invisible.  The  mass  of  mankind 
find  it  difficult  to  grasp  an  abstraction  ;  bat  they  easily 
grasp  a  picture.  For  every  one  man  who  can  understand 
a  truth  put  in  the  form  of  an  abstract  proposition,  there 
are  a  hundred  men  who  will  instantly  understand  it 
when  sketched  in  a  story.  And  the  natural  world  fur- 
nishes us  with  the  truest  pictures  of  the  spiritual.  When, 
therefore,  the  Divine  Teacher,  in  introducing  a  parable, 
uses  his  favorite  formula,  saying,  "  The  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  like  this,"  "  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like 
that,"  every  one  instantly  catches  his  meaning,  and 
feels  that  he  speaks  truly.  Again ;  these  illustrations 
are  themselves  arguments.  It  is  often  said :  "  The 
Scripture  parables  prove  nothing."  Whereas  they  are 
in    fact   specimens  of   logic  in    its  highest    forms.      If 


214  7ESUS  CHRIST  AS  TEACHER. 

things  on  earth  are  shadows,  as  I  believe  they  are,  of 
things  in  heaven,  then  there  are  things  in  heaven,  for 
the  shadows  prove  it,  just  as  a  shadow  does  prove  the 
existence  of  the  substance  that  casts  it.  This  is  why 
the  Lord's  parables  are  such  peerless  instances  of  argu- 
mentation. E.  g.,  In  this  Instruction  on  the  Mount,  the 
Great  Teacher  wishes  to  convince  his  disciples  that  the 
Heavenly  Father  will  take  care  of  all  who  put  their 
trust  in  him.  How  does  he  undertake  to  do  this.-*  By 
an  oracular  statement  to  that  effect  .-*  No  !  By  evolving 
an  elaborate  process  of  ratiocination  "i  No !  By  an 
analogy  from  nature  }  Yes  !  "  Behold  the  birds  of  the 
air !  They  are  not  God's  children ;  and  yet  your 
Heavenly  Father  feedeth  them.  Consider  the  lilies  of 
the  field.  They  are  not  God's  children ;  and  yet  your 
Heavenly  Father  clotheth  them.  In  those  birds  is  my 
argument,  in  these  lilies  is  my  proof.  Ye  are  God's 
children  ;  most  certainly  then  will  your  Heavenly  Father 
feed  and  clothe  you."  What  ingenuous  soul  can  resist 
the  logic  of  such  an  appeal }  Again  :  parables  open 
channels  for  the  unperceived  entrance  of  unpalatable 
truth.  Like  sugar-coated  pills,  or  like  the  little  scroll 
of  the  angel's  hand,  which  in  the  mouth  was  sweet  as 
honey,  but  which,  when  swallowed,  was  bitter,  parables 
may  convey  distasteful  truths,  as  it  were,  in  disguise. 
How  often  did  the  Great  Teacher  graciously  ensnare 
his  adversaries  in  this  artlessly  artful  v^ay !  Once 
more  :  parables  have  a  wonderful  self-adjusting  power, 
letting  into  the  heart  just  so  much  truth  as  the  heart 


^ESUS  CHRIST  AS  TEACHER.  215 

will  allow  to  come  in.  It  is  not  so  with  a  syllogism,  or 
a  theorem  in  geometry :  these  you  either  understand 
wholly,  or  you  do  not  understand  them  at  all  :  the  demon- 
stration is  an  indivisible  thing,  and  you  take  in  all  of  it, 
or  none  of  it.  How  different  the  parables  of  our  Lord ! 
They  have  the  property  of  an  indefinite  elasticity,  ex- 
panding and  contracting,  adjusting  themselves  with  a 
marvellous  accuracy,  not  so  much  to  our  powers  of  un- 
derstanding as  to  our  moral  susceptibility.  They  let  into 
our  hearts  just  so  much  light  as  our  hearts  will  let  in  ;  no 
more,  no  less. 

No  wonder  then  that  the  Lord  of  nature  and  teacher  of 
men  was  wont  to  speak  in  parables.  They  furnished  him 
with  the  most  telling  illustrations  and  confirmations  of 
the  truth  he  came  to  disclose.  They  secured  for  him  an 
audience  which  abstract  statements  might  have  repelled. 
They  planted  the  responsibility  for  character,  or  absorp- 
tion of  spiritual  truth,  at  the  most  merciful  and  at  the 
same  time  the  most  decisive  point — the  point  of  free-will, 
or  moral  sympathy.  And  all  this  because  parables  have 
a  deep  and  solid  foundation  in  the  profound  connection 
between  the  realm  of  matter  and  the  realm  of  spirit :  so 
that  we  may  discern  in  the  one  the  meaning  and  the 
proof  of  the  other. 

And  herein,  brethren,  we  have  a  hint  for  ourselves  as 
teachers.  Nature  is  our  great  storehouse  of  illustration 
and  demonstration.  Instead  then  of  eying  "  science " 
askance,  let  us  boldly  court  her  alliance.  Her  office, 
as  in  the  days  of  magian  astronomy,  is  still  to  bring  her 


2i6  JESUS  CHRIST  AS  TEACHER. 

treasures  of  gold  and  frankincense  and  myrrh,  and  lay 
them  at  the  feet  of  the  ever-unfolding  Christ.  By  thus 
constantly  appealing,  as  did  the  heavenly  teacher  himself, 
to  the  great  nature  around  us,  our  teachings  will  ever- 
more be  fresh  and  fertihzing. 

AUTHORITY  OF  INTUITION. 

Again :  Jesus  Christ  taught  with  the  authority  of  one 
who  appeals  to  our  intuitions. 

Look  again  at  this  mountain  instruction.  On  the 
surface  it  is  utterly  wanting  in  every  sign  of  formal  logic, 
and  yet  it  is  profoundly  logical.  But  it  is  the  logic  of 
instinct,  the  argument,  of  insight,  the  demonstration  of 
intuition.  Listen  to  one  of  these  demonstrations — the 
appeal  to  one  of  the  radical  elements  of  human  society — 
the  sense  of  fatherhood  and  sonhood  :  "  What  man  is  there 
of  you,  who,  if  his  son  ask  bread,  will  he  give  him  a 
stone?  Or,  if  he  ask  a  fish,  will  he  give  him  a  serpent .? 
If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto 
your  children,  how  much  more  shall  your  Father  which 
is  in  heaven  give  good  gifts  to  them  that  ask  him  .?"  Can 
you  conceive  an  argument  more  resistless  }  Thus  did 
Jesus  Christ  speak  to  that  which  is  deepest  and  most 
central  in  man.  He  appealed  to  something  higher  than 
sensibility,  higher  than  intellect,  higher  than  will.  He 
appealed  to  that  which  in  man  is  the  least  human  and  the 
most  divine — the  bar  of  the  moral  sense,  the  bench  of 
conscience.  Therefore  did  he  teach  with  an  authority  to 
which  the  scribes  were  strangers.     They  cited  authority— 


JA'SL'S  CJIKISr  AS  TEACHER.  217 

the  authorities  without ;  he  appealed  to  authority — the 
authority  within. 

AUTHORITY  OF  CHARACTER. 

Once  more:  Jesus  Christ  taught  with  the  authority  of 
one  whose  character  was  itself  the  supreme  authority. 

IIow  marvellous  the  authority  of  the  Galilean  carpen- 
ter over  the  ages !  How  he  dominates  men's  intellects, 
and  affections,  and  consciences!  At  the  mention  of  his 
name  how  many  millions  bow  and  confess  that  he  is 
Lord  of  lords  !  The  civilized  world,  in  spite  of  the  sneer 
of  the  skeptic  and  the  wrath  of  the  reprobate,  reckons  its 
dates  from  the  year  of  his  birth,  heading  their  documents 
with  the  august  words,  Anno  Domini.  The  word  Chris- 
tendom itself — what  is  it  but  Christ  dominion.?  And 
whence  came  this  man's  authority }  Not  from  wealth, 
for  he  had  not  where  to  lay  his  head.  Not  from  social 
influence:  for  his  own  brothers  did  not  believe  in  him, 
his  own  townsmen  rejected  him,  his  own  countrymen 
crucified  him.  Not  from  scholarship:  for  he  was  only  a 
Nazarene  mechanic,  without  academic  training;  "How 
knoweth  this  man  letters,  having  never  learned.?"  i.  r., 
having  never  been  trained  as  a  Rabbi.  And  yet,  never 
man  spake  like  this  man.  Whence  then  comes  this  man's 
authority  .?  From  the  majesty  of  personal  character,  from 
the  omnipotence  of  daily  life.  Men  can  fight  other 
things :  they  can  fight  wealth,  rank,  force,  brain  :  but 
they  cannot  fight  character.     And  this  man's  heavenly 

teachings  were  matched,  buttressed,  made  imperial  by  his 

19 


2i8  JESUS  CHRIST  AS  TEACHER. 

heavenly  life.  Therefore  never  man  spake  like  this  man — 
never  teacher  taught  with  this  teacher's  authority.  As 
Augustine  says:  "Whose  life  is  lightning,  his  words  are 
thunder."* 

"  And  so  the  Word  had  breath,  and  wrought 
With  human  hands  the  creed  of  creeds, 
In  loveliness  of  perfect  deeds, 
More  strong  than  all  poetic  thought : 

"  Which  he  may  read  that  binds  the  sheaf. 
Or  builds  the  house,  or  digs  the  grave. 
And  those  wild  eyes  that  watch  the  wave 
In  roarings  round  the  coral  reef." 

Such  is  an  attempt  to  set  forth,  in  part  at  least, 
Christ's  method  as  Teacher :  in  part,  I  say :  for  the  field 
is  immense,  and  we  have  been  able  to  scan  but  a  section 
of  it.  May  it  not  be  in  vain  that  we  have  scanned  that 
section !     And  now  a  few  words  in  way  of  conclusion. 

THE  CHURCH  CHRIST's  SUCCESSOR  AS  TEACHER. 

And  first :  Jesus  Christ  in  ascending  dropped  his 
mantle  as  instructor  on  his  church.  From  that  hour  the 
church  of  the  living  God  has  been  the  world's  great 
teacher.  Listen  :  "  All  power  is  given  unto  me  in  heaven 
and  in  earth:  Go  ye  therefore  and  teach  all  nations, 
baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the 
Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost:  teaching  them  to  observe  all 
things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you  :  and  lo,T  am 
with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world."  Do  not 
imagine  that  these  words  were  meant  only  for  ministers. 

*  Cujus  vita  est  fulgur,  ejus  verba  tonitrua. 


yESUS  CHRIST  AS  TEACHER.  219 

The  classification  of  the  church  into  clergy  and  laity  is 
not  a  division  in  fact ;  it  is  only  a  distinction  in  form. 
In  the  sight  of  God  ye  are  teachers  not  less  than  we  on 
whose  heads  have  been  laid  the  ordaining  hands  of  the 
presbytery.  And  very  majestic  is  your  office  as  teacher. 
The  world's  great  imperial  men  are  not  those  who  are  its 
millionaires,  or  its  monarchs  ;  they  who  rule  the  world 
are  they  who  teach  it.  Alexander  was  called  the  Great, 
because  he  was  a  conqueror:  but  his  greatness  died  with 
himself.  Plato  the  teacher  was  greater,  and  is  still  Plato 
the  Great,  for  he  is  swaying  Christendom  to-day.  The 
masters  of  the  world  are  those  who  are  its  masters ;  and 
master,  being  interpreted,  is  teacher.  Do  we  not  at  this 
very  day  call  the  school-teacher  master  .^ 

INTIMACY  WITH  CHRIST  THE  SECRET  OF  AUTHORITY. 

Would  you,  O  teacher,  like  the  great  Master  himself, 
teach  with  authority  1  You  will  not  gain  it  from  the 
books.  Commentaries,  maps,  blackboards,  teachers' 
meetings,  Sunday-school  magazines  and  lectures  and 
conventions  are  good.  They  give  a  certain  kind  of  au- 
thority, but  it  is  only  the  authority  of  the  scribes.  Would 
you  have  a  real,  conquering  authority.'^  Then,  like  the 
great  Master,  live  in  sympathy  with  nature,  and  the  forces 
of  the  universe.  Occupy  your  thoughts  with  the  elemen- 
tal, and  transcendent,  and  immortal.  Above  all  things, 
live  in  communion  with  eternal  God  himself.  Be  closeted 
with  him  in  the  intimacies  of  a  celestial  friendship.  Like 
the  divine  man  of  Nazareth,  have  a  godlike  character. 


220  yESUS  CHRIST  AS  TEACHER. 

Then  shall  men  acknowledge  that  your  doctrine,  like 
Christ's,  is  not  yours,  but  his  who  sent  you.  Then  shall 
you  teach  with  authority  indeed.  Yes,  thy  method,  O 
teacher,  will  be  the  method  of  Jesus  Christ. 

CHURCH  OF  THE  DISCIPLES. 

Finally :  May  God  give  you  and  me  grace  to  keep  us 
evermore  studying  in  the  school  of  the  Lord  from  heav- 
en :  for  so  shall  we  in  very  truth  belong  to  the  church 
of  the  disciples.  Thus  sitting  at  his  feet  and  listening 
to  his  word,  we  shall  grow  up  into  him  in  all  things,  who 
is  the  head,  even  Christ. 


THE 


Right  and  Responsibility 


OF  THE 


CHRISTIAN  CONSCIENCE 


IN  THE 


STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES. 


REV.  E.  A.   WASHBURN,  D.  D., 

RECTOR  OF  CALVARY  CHURCH,  NEW  YORK. 


19« 


THE 


Christian  Conscience 


AND  THE 


STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES, 


It  is  an  old  question  I  bring  before  you,  as  old  as  the 
first  day  of  the  Reformation,  when  the  translation  of  the 
Bible  was  the  leader  of  intellectual  as  well  religious  free- 
dom ;  yet  as  new,  and  perhaps  more  weighty,  in  its 
connections  with  modern  thought.  What  is  the  right, 
and  what  the  law  of  the  Christian  conscience  in  the  study 
of  the  Scriptures  ?  The  subject  meets  us  in  many  rela- 
tions, which  demand  our  earnest  inquiry.  It  forces  itself 
on  the  friends  of  public  education,  who  must  inquire  to- 
day whether  the  Bible  shall  be  excluded  from  the  school. 
It  meets  the  thoughtful  believer  in  the  grave  riddles 
opened  by  the  growth  of  Biblical  criticism,  and  the  fresh 
researches  of  science.  We  hear  on  one  side  the  denier 
of  any  divine  revelation,  who  claims  that  he  is  the  only 
true  champion  of  Protestant  principle.  Nor  can  we  doubt, 
on  the  other,  that  the  secret  of  most  of  the  perversions 
to  the  church  of  Rome  lies,  as  one  of  its  best  apologists 


2  24        THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIENCE  AND 

holds,  in  the  uneasy  fear  which  finds  its  refuge  in  the 
name  of  infaUibility.  Where  do  we  stand  ?  Is  there 
any  agreement  between  Protestant  freedom  and  unity  in 
Christian  truth  ?     What  is  the  Protestant  principle  ? 

I  wish  to  answer  this  question  with  an  honest  clear- 
ness. I  believe  with  the  fullest  conviction,  that  the 
ground  of  the  Reformation  is  the  true  and  the  only  true 
one  on  which  we  can  rest.  Yet  it  is  not  so  easy,  as  some 
think,  to  be  stated  ;  and  it  involves  some  points  in  which 
I  shall  doubtless  differ  from  the  popular  view.  But 
if  I  can  so  meet  them,  as  to  convince  you  that  our 
growth  in  Christian  knowledge  is  one  with  an  unshaken 
faith,  I  shall  fulfil  my  purpose.  Nor  do  I  speak  only  or 
chiefly  to  scholars  :  for  although  I  shall  touch  on  lines 
of  thought  which  any  students  in  theology  who  hear  me 
may  follow  into  deep  waters,  my  earnest  wish  is  to  meet 
the  wants  of  all  thoughtful  Christian  men,  to  give  them 
in  a  day  of  chaotic  opinions  that  abiding  truth,  which  to 
know  is  eternal  life. 

We  must  begin  our  inquiry  with  a  clear  statement  of 
our  Protestant  position,  and  the  argument  urged  against 
it  by  the  ablest  opponents.  The  doctrines  of  a  justifying 
faith  in  Christ,  and  of  the  supremacy  of  Holy  Scripture 
as  containing  all  necessary  truth,  are  the  ground  of  the 
Reformation.  Both  are  sides  of  one  principle.  It  is 
the  claim  of  the  Protestant  that  no  traditions  of  men 
and  no  outward  sacramental  systems  can  come  between 
the  personal  conscience  and  God ;  and  therefore  the 
word  of  God  alone  can  be  the  rule  of  faith.      But  it  is 


THE  Sl'UDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.         225 

the  position  of  the  Roman  church,  that  such  a  principle 
is  the  claim  only  of  the  most  lawless  freedom.  Although 
all  may  profess  to  hold  one  Bible,  yet  as  the  right  to 
examine  and  settle  its  truth  belongs  to  every  conscience ; 
as  many  questions  of  doctrine  as  well  as  order  are  involv- 
ed in  such  study,  which  need  Christian  learning ;  and 
as  few  have  either  the  intellect  or  training  for  this,  the 
Protestant  claim  is  the  source  of  unbelief  or  fanaticism. 
To  talk  of  the  inspiration  of  such  a  Book  is  a  misnomer. 
If  it  can  be  interpreted  by  any  sect  or  any  man,  it  is  no 
longer  the  word  of  God.  None  can  state  the  reasoning 
better  than  a  stern  Protestant  satirist  of  former  days. 

"  What  is  the  Bible  ?    The  book  where  each  man  seeks  his  own  dogmas; 
Yes,  and  the  book  where  each  man  certainly  finds  what  he  seeks." 

If  there  be  unity  of  faith,  then,  it  can  only  be  possible 
when  we  admit  the  supreme  authority  of  the  church  as 
interpreter;  and  tradition,  so  far  from  being  contrary  to 
Scripture,  is  thus  necessary  to  it.  Protestantism  has 
been,  says  the  Romanist,  its  own  fearful  commentary  on 
this  fact ;  for  since  the  day  of  Luther  it  has  overturned 
not  merely  the  system  of  the  church,  but  the  Scriptures 
whose  authority  it  boasts  ;  and  to-day  its  Bible  means  any- 
thing from  Strauss  to  the  latest  unbelief.  Nor  is  it  only 
or  chiefly  as  the  destroyer  of  a  sound  learning  that  it  is 
to  be  feared  ;  it  is  the  destroyer  of  the  simple  religion  of 
the  people,  the  parent  of  all  doubt  and  all  impiety.  Such 
has  been  the  argument,  from  the  "Variations"  of  Bossuet 
to  the  latest  of  these  divines.     I  cannot  give  it  in  more 


226        THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIENCE  AND 

eloquent  strength  than  in  the  discourse  of  the  greatest  of 
modern  French  preachers,  Lacordaire,  and  I  am  anxious 
to  do  full  justice  to  his  reasoning :  ''  Take  from  the  heav- 
enly order  the  force  Newton  has  consecrated  under  the 
name  of  attraction,  and  at  once  the  globes  peopling  the 
ether  would  fly  in  contrary  paths,  precipitated  by  that 
other  force  which  is  the  schismatic  power  of  nature. 
There  must  be  a  principle  of  unity  superior  to  the  ele- 
ments of  discord  which  it  nurses  in  its  bosom,  and  this 
principle,  it  has  a  name  :  it  is  sovereignty.  And  as  there 
is  no  civil  society  without  sovereignty,  there  is  no  society 
of  minds  without  an  intellectual  sovereignty.  Should 
Protestants  carry  their  doctrine  over  the  world,  what 
then  1  They  would  have  sown  the  Bible,  and  with  it 
some  ideas  it  contains;  but  they  would  not  have  estab- 
lished a  divine  order,  for  they  have  none."  This  is  the 
logic  of  the  Roman-catholic  system  in  a  word  :  Unity  of 
faith  is  impossible  with  Protestant  freedom  in  the  study 
of  the  Scriptures. 

We  are,  then,  fairly  to  test  this  question.  If  my  pur- 
pose were  merely  to  answer  the  Romish  doctrine,  it 
would  be  enough  to  say  that  its  objection  comes  from 
an  utter  misstatement  of  the  Protestant  principle.  The 
aim  of  the  Reformers,  in  claiming  the  supremacy  of 
Scripture,  was  not  at  all  to  deny  a  due  authority  in 
the  Christian  church  to  interpret  the  Scripture,  but 
to  deny  any  authority  to  impose  as  of  faith  any  dogmas 
"not  proven  by  warranty  of  Scripture."  Nor  is  the 
abuse   of  freedom  in   its   interpretation  any  argument 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.        227 

against  its  right  use.  We  hear  quoted,  often  with  a 
sneer,  the  old  watchword,  "  The  Bible  is  the  religion  of 
Protestants ;"  but  the  sense  in  which  that  phrase  was 
first  uttered  by  Chillingworth,  the  most  clear-headed  of 
thinkers,  was  not  that  the  Protestant  faith  meant  what- 
ever any  self-willed  theorist  or  ignorant  enthusiast  might 
force  on  the  Bible,  but  simply  that  it  contained  all  neces- 
sary truth.  But  I  do  not  wish  merely  to  answer  blow  by 
blow.  I  wish  fairly  to  meet  all  the  difficulties  of  the  case 
as  they  are  felt  by  every  thinking  mind  among  Protes- 
tants themselves.  Let  us  hear  them  honestly.  Are 
there  not,  it  is  asked,  many  questions  of  science  and  crit- 
icism utterly  beyond  the  range  of  any  save  learned 
men,  which  are  yet  claimed  as  necessary  to  the  faith  in 
revelation  }  Is  there  any  real  difference  between  a  Prot- 
estant confession,  which  demands  this,  and  a  Romish 
infallibility  ?  Is  not  the  notion  of  free  inquiry  in  such  a 
case  a  mockery }  I  cannot  doubt  that  such  questions 
are  hard  to  reconcile  with  some  of  our  prevailing  ideas 
of  Scripture,  and  the  systems  of  doctrine  identified  with 
it.  I  cannot  doubt  that  the  dilemma  has  led  many 
to  the  denial  of  all  positive  belief,  and  driven  others 
into  a  church  which  rids  them  of  a  painful  responsibility. 
And  therefore  I  wish  to  consider  this  whole  subject  of 
the  right  of  the  conscience  and  the  true  authority  it  rec- 
ognizes. It  will  lead  us  to  that  view  of  Scripture  which 
makes  it  in  the  noblest  sense  a  sure  word  of  truth,  and 
that  view  of  the  church  which  makes  it  a  living  fellow- 
ship. 


228        THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIENCE  AND 

Let  us,  then,  study  the  principle,  which  was  the  start- 
ing-point of  Protestant  thought.  I  have  said  that  the 
doctrines  of  a  justifying  faith  in  Christ  and  the  su- 
premacy of  Holy  Scripture  are  parts  of  one  truth. 
What  was  this  idea  of  justifying  faith,  which  created 
a  new  life  not  only  in  theology,  but  in  all  thinking 
minds  from  a  Luther  to  the  plain  Christian  man.-*  Was 
it  another  scholastic  proposition  to  take  the  place  of 
the  reigning  system  }  Surely  no.  It  was  the  very  con- 
trary. It  was  the  good  tidings  that  Christianity  was  no 
system  of  scholastic  notions  to  be  received  by  a  blind 
assent,  but  the  gospel  which  could  only  be  known  by 
the  living  knowledge  of  Christ.  Such  a  principle  up- 
rooted at  once  the  theory  on  which  was  built  the  sacra- 
mental fabric  of  Rome.  It  opened  that  ethical  and  spir- 
itual path  which  has  distinguished  Protestant  thought 
ever  since  from  the  traditionary  religion  of  the  past. 
And  if  the  doctrine  of  justification  has  sometimes  since 
been  changed  into  a  metaphysical  notion  as  hard  as  those 
of  the  schools,  it  was  in  its  original  idea  this  restoration 
of  a  living,  simple  Christianity.  The  gospel  of  Christ  is 
given  for  one  only  purpose — to  reveal  redemption  from 
sin,  our  sonship  with  the  Father,  and  a  life  of  real  holi- 
ness, as  the  way  of  the  life  eternal.  This  is  its  substance. 
It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  such  a  revelation  must  come 
to  every  man  as  a  personal  being  endowed  with  thought 
and  conscience,  and  must  demand  the  personal  exercise 
of  those  powers  to  receive  its  truth.  Jesus  Christ,  the 
giver  of  pardon,  grace,  life,  the  personal  revealer  of  the 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.         229 

Father,  is  the  object  of  knowledge.  Such  a  knowledge, 
then,  must  be  in  its  essential  character  different  to  any 
such  assent  as  we  give  to  mere  authority  in  questions  of 
science  or  of  history.  It  begins  with  the  recognition 
of  our  moral  relation  to  God  as  his  children,  of  his 
law  of  holiness  and  our  sin,  of  the  love  of  God  as  it 
meets  this  want  in  the  incarnate  grace  of  his  Son.  It 
is  a  knowledge,  therefore,  not  only  intellectual,  but  knit 
with  the  renewed  affections,  and  through  it  we  receive 
the  truth  of  Christ  as  we  are  made  one  with  his  own 
spirit  of  holiness.  His  revelation  becomes  to  us  not 
only  a  doctrine,  but  a  life  of  real  growth  in  his  fellow- 
ship, of  daily  duty  to  God  and  men.  But  if  this  be  in- 
deed our  conception  of  Christianity  as  a  personal  faith, 
it  is  clear,  again,  that  it  is  no  individual  opinion,  no  sub- 
jective religion.  It  rests  on  the  one  common  truth  of 
the  incarnate  Son  of  God,  whose  revelation  is  the  same 
for  all  men,  because  all  have  in  their  consciences  the 
same  fact  of  their  relation  to  God,  the  same  sense  of 
sin,  the  same  need  of  redemption.  This  was  the  Protes- 
tant principle ;  and  it  is  plain  in  this  view  that  it  was 
and  was  meant  to  be,  not  a  new  Christianity,  but  the  old, 
positive,  historic  faith,  as  it  was  embodied  in  the  Apos- 
tles' Creed,  which  Luther  and  all  the  Reformers  held  ; 
that  faith,  not  in  later  dogmatic  systems,  but  in  the 
Gospel  of  the  New  Testament,  which  spoke  at  once  to 
the  mind  of  each  personal  believer,  yet  is  the  ground  of 
fellowship  for  all  who  are  members  of  the  great  house- 
hold of  God. 


230        THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIENCE  AND 

We  have  here,  then,  the  just  and  the  only  just  view 
of  this  principle,  as  it  bears  on  the  doctrine  of  the 
supremacy  and  sufficiency  of  the  Scriptures.  The  in- 
carnate Christ  is  the  object  of  our  faith.  It  is  in 
this  volume  alone  we  have  the  original,  pure  record  of 
the  truth  and  grace  he  has  bestowed  ;  and  all  the  sys- 
tems of  men  can  add  nothing  to  it.  We  are,  then,  to 
interpret  it  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  its  divine 
unity.  It  is  given  in  the  form  of  history;  a  history 
which  teaches  us  the  education  of  the  world  through  its 
growing  childhood  to  the  birth  of  Him  who  was  the  fulness 
of  times.  That  history,  in  its  very  structure,  is  mingled 
with  many  critical  questions  as  to  the  creation,  the  an- 
nals of  the  early  race,  the  development  of  Hebrew  life, 
and  the  formation  of  the  new  Christian  society.  But  its 
one  essential  purpose,  so  far  as  it  concerns  our  belief  as 
followers  of  Christ,  is  the  knowledge  of  our  redemption. 
Christ  is  the  key  of  the  Scriptures.  It  is  "  through  the 
faith  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus,"  the  apostle  says,  in  that 
much-misconceived  verse  of  his  epistle,  we  learn  that 
"all  Scriptures  are  given  by  divine  inspiration."  The 
spirit  of  his  Gospel  alone  opens  them.  It  gives  us  the 
knowledge  that  is  not  a  scientific  guess-work,  but 
"profitable  for  teaching,  for  instruction  in  righteousness." 
If  we  have  learned  his  truth,  these  pages  from  begin- 
ning to  end  have  a  living  unity.  The  Old  Testament 
reveals  the  one  personal  God,  the  creator  of  the  world ; 
the  origin  of  man  as  a  son  in  his  moral  likeness  ;  the  en- 
trance of  sin  bv  the  free  act  of  transgression ;  the  contin- 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.        231 

nance  of  a  divine  grace  in  the  long,  preparatory  training 
of  the  Hebrew  past ;  the  holy  law,  which  stands  alone, 
like  Sinai,  in  the  moral  desert  of  history.  The  New 
Testament  reveals  the  perfect  truth  and  grace  of  God  in 
the  person,  the  life,  the  sacrifice  of  Jesus  Christ.  All 
these  parts  of  the  sacred  volume  have  thus  their  mutual 
connections,  and  all  must  be  interpreted  by  their  one 
divine  purpose 

Such,  then,  must  be  the  clear  principle  which  guides 
us  in  our  study.  Whatever  belongs  to  these  foundation 
truths  is  the  divine,  infallible  faith  of  Christian  men. 
Whatever  does  not  touch  these  lies  within  the  outer  cir- 
cle of  scientific  inquiry.  I  do  not  here  dwell  on  the 
theory  of  verbal  or  plenary  inspiration.  If  the  view  I 
have  given  you  be  clear,  it  will  be  seen  that  such  a  theo- 
ry, whatever  the  reverence  of  Scripture  that  prompts  it, 
leaves  the  deepest  difficulties  of  the  subject  unanswered. 
For  if  the  Bible  be  indeed  a  book  which  only  presents  to 
us  a  vast  number  of  critical  riddles,  to  be  received  as 
part  of  essential  revelation,  yet  in  their  very  nature 
beyond  the  decision  of  any  save  the  most  critical  scholar, 
and  always  open  to  fresh  controversy,  then  it  must  de- 
mand, as  the  Romanist  asks,  an  infallible  interpreter. 
Our  faith,  then,  needs  a  surer  ground.  It  rests  on  the 
knowledge  of  Him  who  is  the  life  of  the  written  Word. 
It  is  our  deeper  reverence  for  its  mspired  truth,  our  faith 
in  its  real  unity,  which  point  us  to  the  principle  I  have 
laid  down.  Such  a  knowledge  will  teach  us  the  right 
point  of  view,  from  which  we  shall  learn   the  worth  of 


232        THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIENCE  AND 

the  Hebrew  history,  its  worship,  its  social  polity,  its  he- 
roes and  its  saints,  yet  understand  the  far  higher  charac- 
ter of  the  Christian  Gospel,  and  the  Christian  holiness. 
It  will  show  us  the  due  relation  of  all  its  parts,  chronicle 
or  psalm  or  prophecy,  to  the  central  design.  It  will  show 
us  the  natural  variety  in  the  style  of  the  writers,  the 
tone  of  their  thought,  yet  their  true  harmony.  There  will 
be  no  self-willed  reason  in  this  study,  for  it  is  to  follow 
the  reason  of  the  Word  itself.  There  will  be  no  vague 
opinion,  for  we  "  hold  the  head,  even  Christ."  We  shall 
not  fear  the  assaults  of  a  false  neology,  because  we 
shall  be  assured  that  all  the  results  of  earlier  or  later 
criticisms  can  no  more  shake  the  foundattons  than  the 
removing  of  a  few  loose  stones  can  shake  the  walls  of  the 
cathedral.  Much  will  interest  us  as  Christian  scholars, 
which  will  not  touch  our  Christian  faith.  Science  will 
decide  at  last,  as  it  did  with  the  heresy  of  Copernicus, 
the  questions  of  our  time  as  to  the  Mosaic  cosmogony, 
or  the  age  of  the  world ;  yet  its  verdict  will  not  disturb 
us,  if  the  design  of  revelation  be  not  to  teach  geology 
or  astronomy,  or  the  details  of  secular  history,  but  to 
give  us  the  knowledge  of  redemption.  And  as  this  is  the 
plain  rule  for  the  scholar,  so  the  simple  believer  will 
read  this  word  without  needless  questions  concerning  that 
which  has  no  bearing  whatever  on  his  faith  or  holiness. 
If  we  have  not  this  knowledge  of  Christ's  gospel,  al- 
though we  have  sounded  all  the  depths  and  shoals  of  criti- 
cism, we  have  not  the  alphabet  of  the  truth ;  if  we  have 
this,  the  sacred  volume  is  one,  one  in  its  historic  and 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.        233 

its  spiritual  meaning,  one  for  the  wise  and  the  unlettered, 
one  for  the  intellect,  the  heart,  and  the  life. 

In  such  a  light  we  pass  clearly  to  the  next  weighty 
side  of  our  subject,  the  authority  of  the  church  as  the 
interpreter  of  the  Scriptures.  It  is  the  claim  of  the 
Romanist  and  of  others  who  deny  the  Protestant  prin- 
ciple, that  there  must  be  unity  of  faith  in  regard  to 
the  truths  of  revelation.  We  grant  this,  nay,  we  affirm 
this  unity  as  the  very  bond  of  fellowship.  To  deny  it 
would  be  to  make  revelation  a  mockery.  A  religion  or  a 
church,  which  came  out  of  no  positive  truth  whatever, 
would  be  as  like  that  of  the  New  Testament,  as  the  uni- 
verse of  Prof.  Haeckel  out  of  a  lifeless  cell  is  like  that  of 
the  Divine  Maker.  But  the  question  on  which  hinges 
the  real  difference  is  as  to  the  nature  of  this  unity.  What 
is  it.-*  We  have  already  given  the  answer  in  the  conclu- 
sion we  reached  as  to  the  character  of  the  Scripture 
itself.  The  truth  of  the  W^ord  of  God  has  in  itself,  as  we 
sought  to  show,  an  intrinsic  unity  ;  it  is  the  one  revela- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ,  of  the  son  ship  and  fellowship  of 
believers  in  him.  There  need  be,  then,  no  contradic- 
tion whatever,  and  no  perplexity  as  to  the  superior 
claim  of  Bible  or  of  church.  It  is  said  that  the  church 
existed  before  the  Scripture,  and  that  the  canon  itself 
rests  on  its  authority.  Undoubtedly.  It  is  said  that  the 
Scripture  is  above  the  church.  Undoubtedly.  But  the 
view  which  we  have  given,  reconciles  them.  Jesus  Christ, 
the  living  Word,  is  before  and  above  both.  The  Incar- 
nation is  the  key  of  the  Bible ;  without  it  there  remains 

20- 


234        ^-J^HE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIENCE  AND 

a  dead  letter.  The  Incarnation  is  the  basis  of  our  or- 
ganic fellowship ;  without  it  creed  and  sacrament  are  dead. 
Scripture  and  the  church,  then,  bear  witness  to  one  and 
the  selfsame  essential  truth.  The  written  word  remains 
always  the  original,  supreme  and  sufficing  record  of 
him,  nor  can  any  authority  of  human  councils  add  any- 
thing as  of  necessary  belief  to  what  he  has  given.  It  is 
the  function  of  the  church  to  keep  this  truth  in  its  sim- 
plicity, to  embody  in  its  creed  the  clear  meaning  of 
revelation,  to  expound  it  through  its  authorized  teachers, 
its.  devout  worship,  and  its  methods  of  practical  educa- 
tion. 

A  Christian  creed  is  thus  the  growth  of  Christian 
thought.  It  was  necessary  that  the  truth  of  the  Incar- 
nate Christ  should  be  defined  in  its  more  doctrinal  form, 
when  our  religion  had  passed  beyond  the  plain  belief  of 
apostolic  days,  and  many  speculative  theories  had  be- 
clouded its  simplicity.  The  great  doctrines  of  sin,  atone- 
ment, grace,  have  been  the  successive  expositions  of  the 
one  revealed  fact  of  God  in  Christ,  as  age  after  age  they 
have  employed  the  mind  of  the  church.  But  while  this 
is  true,  the  unity  of  the  faith  is  not  the  unity  of  a  theolo- 
gical system.  Creeds  and  confessions  have  their  needful 
use  as  a  bulwark  against  speculative  errors,  but  they  are 
not  the  living  truth  itself.  We  have  in  the  science  of 
'  astronomy  the  noblest  work  of  the  human  mind  in  reckon- 
ing the  orbit  of  the  sun  and  the  varied  motion  of 
the  planets,  yet  the  sun,  not  the  treatise  of  astronomy, 
gives  light  and  heat.     And  even  so  it  is   the  personal 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.        235 

power  of  Christ's  truth  which  gives  life.  The  belief 
in  his  Incarnation  did  not  rest  on  the  vote  of  an  assem- 
bly of  bishops  in.  the  Nicene  age  ;  the  common  faith 
of  believers  uttered  itself  in  the  creed,  and  this  is  the 
truth  speaking  in  the  New  Testament  now  and  always 
in  the  divine  sinless  grace  of  his  person,  of  which  the 
symbol  is  only  the  scientific  expression.  Thus  it  is  with 
each  doctrine.  Augustin  may  expound  the  meaning  of 
sin,  Anselm  may  give  us  a  theory  of  the  atonement, 
Calvin  may  reason  of  the  riddle  of  grace  and  will ;  but 
it  is  the  fact  of  sin  in  the  conscience  of  each,  the  truth  of 
redemption  as  it  speaks  in  the  heartfelt  revelation  of  the 
Saviour,  which  makes  believers  one.  And  hence  the 
chief  duty  of  the  church  is,  while  it  guards  against 
ignorant  interpretation,  to  keep  "the  healthy  teaching" 
which  St.  Paul  so  often  urges,  by  an  appeal  to  the  open 
word  of  Scripture.  Here  alone  in  the  primitive,  fresh 
gospel  we  have  the  touchstone  by  which  to  try  the  dross 
of  all  traditions;  here  we  all,  scholars  or  simple,  have 
one  common  birthright. 

Now  this  clear  principle  we  are  to  distinguish  from 
the  false  view  of  the  church  as  the  interpreter  of  the 
word.  It  is  the  claim  of  the  Romanist  that  Scripture 
is  the  record  of  divine  truth  ;  but  its  interpretation  is 
given  to  one  class  of  teachers  alone,  and  a  Christian  faith 
is  an  unquestioning  assent  to  its  decrees.  Let  us  not 
mistake  the  difference.  This  claim  is  not  only  to  the 
authority  of  a  wise  teaching,  consistent  with  the  open 
knowledge  of  the  word  of  God,  but  to  infallibility.     And 


236        THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIENCE  AND 

I  beg  you  again,  to  observe  the  ground  of  the  claim.  It 
is  that  false  conception  of  the  Scriptures  which  I  have 
endeavored  to  expose.  It  is  the  assumption  of  the  Ro- 
manist, that  the  Christian  revelation  is  a  system  of  ab- 
stract dogmas,  of  scientific  riddles,  which  must  therefore 
be  a  sealed  book  to  all,  save  a  few  authorized  expounders. 
I  turn  to  one  of  the  most  subtle  of  modern  defences^ 
the  Grammar  of  Assent,  by  Mr.  Newman,  for  the  clear 
statement  of  the  doctrine.  "  It  stands  to  reason  that  all, 
learned  and  unlearned,  are  bound  to  believe  the  whole 
revealed  doctrine  in  all  its  parts  and  all  it  implies ;  it 
stands  also  to  reason,  that  a  doctrine  so  deep  and  various, 
as  the  revealed  dcpositmn  of  faith,  cannot  be  brought 
home  to  us  and  made  our  own  all  at  once."  "  The  difficulty 
is  removed  by  the  dogma  of  the  church's  infallibility  and 
of  the  consequent  duty  of  implicit  faith  in  her  word.  It 
stands  in  the  place  of  all  abstruse  propositions  in  a 
Catholic  mind,  for  to  believe  in  her  word  is  virtually  to 
believe  in  them  all.  Even  what  he  cannot  understand, 
he  can  believe  to  be  true,  and  he  believes  it  to  be  true, 
because  he  believes  in  the  church."  Examine  now  the 
logic.  If  the  word  of  God  be  such  a  riddle,  "deep  and 
various,"  and  if  essential  faith  be  in  this  riddle,  then 
in  very  deed  many  Protestant  minds  would  cry,  "  Let 
us  give  up  our  torturing  responsibility,  and  rest  in  the 
Nirvana  of  the  infallible  church.  But  if  it  be  not  this, 
if  it  be  a  revelation  indeed  for  the  mind  and  heart, 
such  a  claim  is  the  most  astounding  of  absurdities.  We 
lay  bare  here  the  root  of  the  sophistry.     Such  a  faith 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.          237 

is  not  the  acceptance  of  the  truth  of  Christ  as  it  meets 
our  personal  thought  or  affection  ;  it  is  the  assent  of  the 
blind  mind  to  a  sum  of  abstruse  propositions  which  we 
cannot  know  at  all,  but  believe  because  we  are  told  to 
believe  them.  If  this  be  Christianity,  then  it  is  no  reve- 
lation. The  word  of  God  is  a  mockery,  for  it  can  convey 
no  light  even  through  the  glasses  of  its  pretended  inter- 
preters. This  mental  assent  is  such  as  the  man  of 
science  would  demand,  should  he  say,  '*  You  cannot  see 
the  stars  with  the  naked  eye ;  put  out  your  eyes  and  then 
look  through  my  telescope."  If  this  again  be  Catholic 
unity,  then  the  truths  of  our  salvation  are  a  deposit  of 
esoteric  dogma  in  the  hands  of  an  irresponsible  priest- 
hood. If  this  be  Catholic  certainty,  then  the  meaning  of 
the  Scripture  is  not  surer  than  when  left  at  the  mercy  of 
a  hundred  sects,  for  we  have  absolutely  no  test  left  to 
judge  between  its  truth  and  every  tradition.  Who  does 
not  see,  that  out  of  this  root  has  sprung  the  harvest  of 
falsehoods  }  The  church  declares  as  Christ's  word,  "  this 
is  my  body,"  and,  therefore,  a  bit  of  bread  is  Christ,  al- 
though sense,  reason,  and  Scripture,  deny  it;  and  for  the 
communion  that  asks  your  intelligent  faith,  you  must  hold 
a  senseless  and  soulless  marvel  on  peril  of  salvation.  Yet 
we  have  devout  men  to-day,  who  for  fear  of  unbelief  will 
choose  this  theory  and  call  it  the  unity  of  faith.  Strange 
insanity !  It  will  make  a  hundredfold  more  unbelievers 
than  the  most  destructive  criticism.  But  let  us  not 
merely  recognize  here  the  error  of  a  Roman- catholic 
system.     It  may  lurk  and  does  too  often  lurk  in  Protes- 


238        THE  CHRISTIAiy  CONSCIENCE  AND 

tant  disguise.  If  instead  of  the  simple  truth  of  the 
gospel  of  Christ,  we  make  it  an  abstruse  theology  or 
a  volume  of  scientific  riddles,  we  shall  reach  a  like  con- 
clusion. Whether  it  be  Trent,  or  Dort,  or  Westmin- 
ster, whether  Anglo-catholic  or  any  other,  to  mistake 
the  authority  of  theological  confessions  for  the  unity  of 
the  faith,  is  the  principle  of  infallibility.  Our  Chris- 
tianity becomes  a  gospel  of  notions,  not  a  living  word 

And  if,  then,  we  so  understand  the  rightful  relation 
of  Scripture  to  the  church,  we  can  at  once  apply  our  rea- 
sonmg  to  the  conclusion  before  us — our  right  and  our 
responsibility  in  this  study.  The  law  which  binds  our 
conscience,  and  the  freedom  we  must  maintain  in  the 
pursuit  of  the  truth,  are  not  contrary  to  each  other,  but 
one,  I  shall  take  up  each  of  these  points  in  its  order. 
We  have  the  true  idea  of  law :  not  the  surrender  of  our 
Christian  right  to  any  arbitrary  power,  but  our  intelligent, 
willing  unity  in  the  body  of  Christ.  We  recognize  in 
our  relation  to  the  church  the  same  organic  fact  we  ac- 
cept in  all  our  growth.  Each  of  us  has  his  education  from 
youth  to  manhood  in  this  social  atmosphere ;  and  each 
must  find  this  training  in  science  or  letters,  under  the 
care  of  the  best  teachers,  in  the  studies  suited  to  his 
powers,  that  he  may  gain  the  self-discipline  for  his  call- 
ing. Nor  is  it  less  so  with  our  Christian  nurture.  There 
are  few,  unless  they  have  been  bred  in  the  thin  air  of 
free  religion,  who  sit  down  in  youth  to  construct  a  belief ; 
and  if,  like  Mr.  Mill,  any  has  been  guarded  from  all  reli- 
gious bias,  he  will  only  accept  Atheism  by  faith  in  his 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.         239 

father's  infallibility.  None  ever  reads  the  Bible  "  without 
note  or  comment."  We  receive  the  current  ideas  of  doc- 
trine from  home-teaching,  book,  Sunday-school,  pulpit ;  we 
catch  many  opinions,  to  be  corrected  by  riper  thought. 
But  such  authority  is  not  arbitrary  ;  it  is  the  same  defer- 
ence to  superior  learning  we  pay  in  questions  of  law  or 
natural  science.  I  have  indeed  no  faith  in  the  cloistered 
training  which  keeps  the  young  mind  in  the  ignorance 
of  all  criticism,  or  in  the  mechanical  study  of  the  Bible, 
for  such  a  mistake  too  often  whets  doubt  ;  but  I  have  as 
little  in  the  slipshod  religion  that  forgets  the  need  of 
mental  and  moral  discipline.  We  can  only  gain  in  the 
instruction  of  the  Christian  household  the  reverent  rea- 
son which  can  enable  us  to  pass  beyond  the  school.  If 
we  have  learned  the  simple  truths  of  a  Father,  a  Re- 
deemer, a  Sanctifier,  the  law  of  a  pure  conscience,  the 
affections  that  bind  us  with  Christ  and  men,  the  habits 
of  a  growing  holiness,  the  modesty  of  true  knowledge, 
we  have  the  heart  of  wisdom  ;  and  whatever  the  mental 
struggles  or  even  the  doubt  of  after  years,  we  shall  sel- 
dom fall  into  a  shallow  or  a  mocking  unbelief. 

Such  is  the  authority  we  recognize  as  that  which 
binds  us  in  the  communion  of  Christ.  It  is  the  au- 
thority of  learning.  It  is  the  authority  of  holiness. 
It  is  the  authority  of  a  common  faith.  We  do  not, 
because  we  hold  the  Protestant  faith  and  accept  the 
Bible  as  the  oracle  of  truth,  therefore  make  a  new 
Christianity ;  but  rather,  we  claim  our  share  in  all  the 
wisdom  that  has  studied  its  divine  pages.     The  history 


240        THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIENCE  AND 

of  the  church  is  not  a  mere  wrangle  of  theological  opin- 
ions. The  essential  truths  of  Christ,  his  doctrine  and 
sacraments,  are  unchanged  in  their  real  influence  ;  nor 
do  we  confound  with  any  systems  of  any  teachers  the 
faith  that  abides  always,  everywhere,  and  for  all.  It  is  a 
far  truer  view  of  catholicity  which  our  Protestant  belief 
gives  us  than  that  which  I  have  cited  from  Lacordaire. 
The  unity  of  the  church,  in  his  idea,  is  like  the  power  of 
the  sun,  which  masters  the  "  schismatic  force  "  that  tends 
to  draw  the  planets  from  the  centre.  But  let  us  study 
this  magnificent  figure.  If  there  were  no  centrifugal 
power  to  balance  the  attraction,  the  planets  would  be 
drawn  into  the  scorching  bosom  of  the  sun.  That  is 
the  unity  of  Rome.  It  is  not  there  we  find  the  attractive 
power  that  keeps  the  life  of  Christianity.  Unity  in  the 
church,  as  in  nature,  combines  authority  and  moral  free- 
dom. Where  is  this  abiding  religion.?  It  is  just  where 
it  was  in  the  apostolic  or  Nicene  age.  It  lives  in  the 
Word  of  God  and  in  the  fellowship  of  Christian  men. 
All  the  controversies  of  the  schools,  all  the  questions 
that  concern  the  critic,  do  not  materially  affect  it.  It  is 
not  probable  that  the  habit  of  Christian  prayer  will  die 
out  because  Mr.  Tyndall  has  proposed  his  prayer  gauge, 
or  that  a  thousand  theories  will  disturb  the  life  of  reli- 
gion. The  purpose  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  is  for  gui- 
dance in  the  way  of  daily  duty,  and  therefore  it  can  never 
lose  its  power.  It  teaches  the  same  Father,  Redeemer, 
and  Sanctifier;  it  heals  the  conscience  in  its  struggles 
with  sin,  ministers  to  rich  or  poor,  lettered  or  simple, 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.         241 

one  law  of  social  duty,  one  comfort  in  trial,  holds  up  the 
cross  of  Christ,  and  opens  the  gates  of  life  eternal.  And 
it  is  the  truest  mark  of  the  divinity  of  our  religion,  that 
it  has  this  adaptation  to  the  mind  and  heart  of  all  men. 
There  is  a  science  for  the  scholar,  and  a  sufficing  wis- 
dom for  the  less-gifted  believer.  Few  can  master  the 
Hebrew  or  Greek  Scriptures  ;  £ew  can  decide  the  nice 
questions  of  Christian  evidence  ;  but  he  that  hath  the 
Son  of  God  hath  the  witness  in  himself.  A  Laplace  can 
map  the  heavens  by  his  Mecaiiiqiie  Celeste ;  but  the  sea- 
man, with  a  simpler  knowledge,  shall  guide  his  vessel  by 
the  same  stars  through  the  dangers  of  the  ocean  ;  and 
even  so  a  Christian  man,  if  he  be  not  able  to  meet  all  the 
speculative  riddles  of  the  time,  to  settle  the  facts  of  geol- 
ogy or  the  law  of  evolution,  may  walk  in  the  light  of  a 
positive  truth  with  a  faith  as  reasonable  as  it  is  heartfelt. 
Is  it  a  blind  assent  to  the  voice  of  an  infallible  church 
which  gives  this  unity .?  No.  It  is  that  the  foundation 
truths  of  the  Christian  revelation  are  one  for  the  con- 
science and  the  life.  When  I  turn  to  Augustin,  as  he 
reasons  of  the  loftiest  problems  of  the  providence  of  God 
and  the  nature  of  the  soul,  I  hear  him  say  at  last,  "  In 
Cicero  and  Plato  I  meet  with  many  things  acutely  spo- 
ken, but  in  them  all  I  find  not  this :  *  Come  unto  me,  ye 
weary  and  heavyladen,  and  I  will  give  you  rest ;'  "  and  if 
I  go  to  the  humblest  disciple,  who  has  learned  this  faith 
in  the  Son  of  God  amid  the  trials  of  daily  life,  I  have  the 
centre  and  sum  of  a  Christian  theology. 

We  may  thus  pass  to   the  point   which  completes 
21 


242        THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIENCE  AND 

our  view — the  freedom  of  inquiry  in  the  study  of  the 
Scriptures.  If  the  truth  of  revelation,  as  I  have 
shown,  is  one  and  unchanging,  because  it  Hves  in  its 
original  record  and  in  the  fellowship  of  all  believers, 
yet  the  exposition  of  the  book  is  human,  and  therefore 
capable  of  clearer  and  clearer  knowledge.  There  must 
be  always  in  the  church  of  Christ  a  spirit  of  healthful 
growth.  We  are  never  to  confound  with  the  abiding 
faith  the  methods  of  Biblical  interpretation.  The  criti- 
cism of  the  Word  of  God  must,  in  its  very  nature,  change 
with  our  closer  study  of  language,  the  light  thrown  on 
Hebrew  or  Christian  history  from  all  sources  of  later 
learning,  and  the  correction  of  past  errors.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  find  in  any  science,  in  the  advance  of  astronomy 
from  the  rude  chart  of  the  heavens  to  the  laws  of  New- 
ton, or  of  anatomy  from  Galen  to  our  times,  a  riper 
growth  than  from  the  allegorical  methods  of  the  early 
fathers  to  the  historic  criticism  of  our  day.  We  love  the 
spiritual  insight  of  Augustin,  but  his  fanciful  interpreta- 
tion of  the  days  of  creation  would  be  thought  to-day 
strange  absurdity.  This  mystical  exposition  has  been 
consecrated  in  the  Latin  church.  But  Protestantism, 
while  it  has  from  the  first  been  truer  to  the  Scripture,  has 
only  by  degrees  freed  itself  from  the  same  methods.  It 
has  too  often  interpreted  the  Scripture  by  its  theological 
systems,  instead  of  its  systems  by  Scripture.  The  Old 
Testament  has  been  turned  into  a  riddle,  and  the  epistles 
of  St.  Paul  read  through  our  controversial  glasses.  We 
have  too  many  to-day  who  follow  the  canon  of  Cocceius, 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES,         243 

that  the  Bible  should  have  all  the  occult  meanings  they 
can  find  in  it.  Yet  each  step  has  brought  us  nearer  and 
nearer  to  the  true  method.  And  it  is  the  glory  of  our 
Protestant  faith  that,  as  it  claims  above  all  to  find  truth 
in  the  Word  of  God,  it  has,  in  spite  of  its  partial  sys- 
tems, encouraged  that  free,  yet  reverent  study  which 
is  sure  at  last  to  correct  its  own  errors,  and  lead  to 
a  living  knowledge.  The  only  condition  of  a  healthy 
life,  intellectual  or  spiritual,  is  in  this  ceaseless  growth. 
Let  there  be  an  authority  that  frowns  on  all  culture,  ste- 
reotypes all  belief  by  its  theological  confessions,  and  calls 
all  reasonable  thought  rationalism,  and  it  will  end  in  stag- 
nation ;  nay,  it  will  always  create  rationalism  in  its  own 
bosom.  It -is  passing  strange  that  readers  of  history, 
Protestant  as  well  as  Romish,  so  often  mistake  this 
principle.  The  dogmatism  of  one  generation  reacts  in 
the  heresy  of  the  next.  The  pent-up  reason  finds  its 
only  freedom  in  a  wild  explosion.  What  can  give  us 
so  sure  a  lesson  as  the  church  which  boasts  infallibility ! 
No  communion  has  held  within  its  bosom  more  war- 
ring elements  :  Jansenist  and  Jesuit ;  rationalists  like 
Abelard  who  tore  up  school  theology  by  the  roots,  Pan- 
theists who  grafted  Averroes  on  the  stock  of  Catholic 
faith,  materialists,  in  the  age  before  the  Reformation,  who 
denied  soul  and  immortality ;  yet  all  its  efforts  to  burn 
out  thought  by  the  fagot,  or  its  modern  anathemas  against 
science,  have  ended  in  an  unbelief  among  educated  minds 
far  deadlier  than  any  of  Protestant  growth.  Yet  we  have 
too  often  forgotten  the  lesson.     It  cannot  be  doubted,  as 


244       THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIENCE  AND 

Dorner  has  clearly  shown  in  his  history  of  the  reformed 
doctrine,  that  the  earlier  neology  of  Germany,  was  the 
natural  child  of  the  formal  theology.  Where  then,  is 
the  security  of  the  faith  against  false  science?  It 
lies  in  the  growth  of  true  science.  The  church  must 
keep  its  simple  creed,  its  reverent  training ;  but  it 
must  have  such  trust  in  the  divine  power  of  truth, 
that  it  can  encourage  a  wise  freedom.  When  I  hear 
some  of  our  modern  dogmatists  say  that  the  Protestant 
principle  leads  to  rationalism,  I  smile  as  I  should  at  one 
who  forbade  pure  water,  because  it  holds  an  inflammable 
gas.  That  spirit  is  at  bottom  indifference  to  truth.  The 
real  secret  of  the  power  which  an  infallible  church  has 
over  many  minds,  is  that  it  satisfies  their  sloth  and  rids 
them  of  the  responsibility  of  thought.  It  was  well  said 
by  John  Locke,  that  if  infallibility  had  been  best,  it  had 
been  better  that  God  should  make  each  man  infallible, 
since  mistake  would  then  be  impossible;  yet  he  has  not 
done  so.  Christian  truth  is  given  to  the  church  for  its 
growth.  It  must  keep  the  open  word  of  God ;  it  must 
win  its  victories  over  error  by  a  sounder  learning. 

But  perhaps  I  cannot  better  close  this  argument 
than  by  taking  as  my  example  the  lesson,  which  the  his- 
tory of  Biblical  criticism  furnishes  at  this  day.  I  have  no 
space  for  more  than  a  sketch ;  but  enough,  if  it  teach  us 
what  I  have  striven  to  enforce,  that  our  best  Christian 
learning  is  the  fruit  of  our  struggles.  We  look  with 
natural  alarm  at  the  unbelief  which  seeks  to  undermine 
the  very  ground  of  a  divine  revelation  ;  yet  if  we  will 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.        245 

study  its  steps,  we  shall  have  no  unwise  fears  of  the 
result.  I  have  said  already,  that  the  neology,  which  had 
its  birth  in  the  church  of  Luther,  came  from  the  decay  of 
theology  itself,  which  had  hid  the  living  truth  of  Scrip- 
ture under  its  formal  system.  There  was  no  true  study 
of  its  historic  structure  or  its  unity  of  design.  It  was 
an  easy  work  for  the  critic  to  sweep  away  the  rubbish  of 
former  interpreters,  to  explain  the  miracles  by  ingenious 
natural  theory ;  and  for  a  time  it  seemed  that  every  part 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  would  be  destroyed  by  this 
piecemeal  process.  But  it  was  another  task  when  the  old 
earthworks  were  demolished,  and  the  rationalist  came  face 
to  face  with  the  central  truths  of  revelation.  A  new  gen- 
eration of  thinkers  like  Strauss  followed  the  negative 
critics.  This  was  the  positive  question  they  had  to 
meet,  what  should  explain  that  greatest  of  all  miracles, 
the  person  of  Christ,  the  central  fact  of  both  revela- 
tion and  human  history }  And  here,  then,  the  Word 
of  God  called  out  the  new  learning  of  its  defenders.  It 
awoke  a  deeper  study  of  the  Scriptures.  It  has  ended 
to-day  in  the  noblest  results.  Undoubtedly  our  older 
methods  of  interpretation  have  been  changed  in  many 
points  ;  but  we  have  gained  a  larger  and  surer  ground. 
The  Old  Testament  has  been  studied  in  the  light  of 
history ;  and  the  divine  features,  in  which  it  stands 
above  all  records,  its  truths  of  one  God,  its  stately  law, 
its  unity  of  design,  its  work  in  the  education  of  the  race, 
remain  its  unshaken  evidence.     But  the  result  of   this 

study  is  nobler  yet  in  the  New  Testament.     Neology  has 

21* 


246        THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIENCE  AND 

centred  its  strength  in  the  effort  to  explain  away  the 
historic  miracle  of  Christ.  It  has  sought  to  make  him  a 
mythj  it  has  sought  again  to  give  a  later  origin  to  the 
Gospels  ;  but  each  attempt  has  ended  in  clearer  evidence 
of  fact.  The  contest  is  not  over.  It  may  even  seem  to 
many  in  this  day  of  a  gross  atheism  to  be  fiercer  than 
before.  But  it  is  precisely  here  we  find  the  best  promise 
of  the  end.  For  it  is  no  longer  a  pretended  Christianity 
with  which  we  have  to  strive ;  it  is  an  unbelief,  which 
confesses  that  there  is  no  standing  ground  between  an 
unknowable  God  and  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ. 
And  more  than  this,  it  is  clear  that  the  long  struggle  has 
ended  in  the  sounder  learning,  the  more  living  faith  of 
the  Christian  church.  We  have  gained  not  only  a  truer 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  but  through  this  of  the  char- 
acter of  revelation  itself.  It  is  the  aim  of  our  best 
thought  to  turn  away  from  the  unreal  strifes  of  our 
theological  schools,  and  to  come  back  to  the  sources  ; 
to  measure  systems  of  doctrine  and  church  parties  by 
the  one  simple  truth  of  Christ,  not  Christ  by  them  ;  and 
this  will  bring  at  last  the  only  unity.  A  theology  of  the 
New  Testament,  a  church  of  the  New  Testament  is  what 
we  need.  This  is  the  result,  this  is  the  noble  witness  of 
a  Christian  learning.  We  may  mourn  over  the  strifes  of 
error,  but  we  are  false  to  the  cause  of  Christ,  false  to 
the  whole  history  of  the  past,  false  to  all  the  labors  of 
the  wise,  false  to  the  best  hopes  of  the  future,  if  we  have 
not  this  unshaken  faith  in  the  victory  of  truth. 

And  thus,  my  friends,  I  may  gather  these  thoughts 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.        247 

into  their  plain  conclusion.  I  have  shown  you  the  rela- 
tion of  the  Christian  conscience  to  the  gospel  of  Christ. 
I  have  shown  you  the  unity  of  the  truth  given  in  the  writ- 
ten word,  and  the  method  of  its  study :  its  right  harmo- 
ny with  the  doctrinal  authority  of  the  church,  the  abiding 
character  of  Christian  belief,  yet  its  growth  in  true  knowl- 
edge. If  my  reasoning  be  clear,  I  need  but  a  few  words 
to  enforce  it  on  all  who  have  an  interest  in  the  inquiries, 
that  busy  thoughtful  men  of  our  own  time.  I  hope  that 
my  view,  however  imperfect,  will  give  you  such  guiding 
principles  as  may  keep  you,  in  a  day  of  many  teachers 
and  many  creeds,  true  to  the  one  divine  Master.  It  is 
not  an  easy  task  to  keep  this  harmony  of  a  free  conscience 
with  authority.  It  is  a  path  between  the  rock  of  tradi- 
tion and  the  quicksand  of  unbelief.  But  if  you  have 
learned  aright  the  living  character  of  that  truth,  revealed 
in  the  New  Testament,  it  will  direct  you  in  its  study. 
You  will  not  mistake  for  a  sound  reason  the  mind 
which  examines  it  without  any  knowledge  of  its  spir- 
itual purpose,  or  with  a  merely  critical  keenness  to  dis- 
sect the  letter.  Such  study  will  end  only  in  a  shallow 
misinterpretation.  It  is  the  book  which  teaches  the 
history  of  God's  dealing  with  men,  the  life  of  the  Re- 
deemer, and  the  law  of  duty ;  and  if  that  be  its  de- 
sign, it  must  demand  of  us  that  we  approach  it  with  a 
reverent  heart.  Such  a  spirit  will  not  check  the  love  of 
honest  inquiry  :  it  will  inspire  it  We  shall,  if  we  be 
scholars,  whose  work  it  is  to  explore  this  mine,  carry 
with  us  the  safety  lamp  of  a  devout  wisdom.    We  shall  be 


248        THE  CHRISTIAN  CONSCIENCE  AND 

able  to  distinguish  between  the  essential  truth  it  reveals, 
and  the  questions  that  are  open  to  a  scientific  criticism  ; 
we  shall  welcome  every  true  result  of  learning,  without 
being  carried  away  by  the  brilliant,  but  unproved  theories 
of  our  time.  We  shall  hold  fast  the  truth  we  know,  and 
keep  a  calm  trust  in  it  amidst  the  changes  of  opinion.  This 
is  the  reasonable  freedom  of  a  Christian  mind.  It  has  no 
kindred  with  the  free  religion,  which  thinks  it  possesses 
truth  because  it  has  renounced  all  positive  creed.  There 
is  no  Christian  freedom  save  in  the  truth.  And  it  is  as  far 
on  the  other  side  from  the  spirit,  which  accepts  the  tradi- 
tions of  men  instead  of  an  intelligent  and  honest  knowl- 
edge. Let  us  never  be  of  those  whom  Hooker  describes 
as  minds  that  "use  reason  only  to  disgrace  reason." 
There  may  be  a  rationalism,  which  weaves  its  theories, 
and  calls  them  revelation — a  rationalism  as  fatal  to  the 
simplicity  of  Christ  as  unbelief.  Whatever  its  name, 
whether  of  infallible  Pontiff  or  Protestant  system,  it 
must  never  usurp  the  authority  we  can  only  give  to  our 
divine  Master.  Let  us  gladly  promote  all  sound  knowl- 
edge. Let  us  hail  without  fear  that  noblest  work  of  our 
time,  which  will  give  the  church  a  faithful  revision  of  the 
Scriptures,  assured  that  it  will  reveal  more  truly  the 
mind  of  its  Author.  Let  us  defend  the  faith  always  with 
the  weapons  of  fair  argument,  of  manly  learning ;  for  we 
know  that  "  we  can  do  nothing  against  the  truth,  but  for 
the  truth." 

This  is  our  right  and  responsibility  in  the  study  of 
the  Holy  Scripture.     It  is  the  gift  of  God.     The  Word 


2UIE  STUDY  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.        249 

is  not  bound ;  it  is  free  as  the  mind  of  Christ :  it  fears 
no  criticism  ;  it  asks  no  earthworks  of  false  defence  ;  it  is 
strong  enough  to  conquer  the  traditions  and  the  unbeUef  of 
men  ;  it  lay  buried  for  centuries,  alive  in  its  charmed  sleep, 
within  the  sarcophagus  of  a  Latin  superstition,  and  it 
came  forth,  like  its  Lord,  to  the  better  resurrection  ;  it 
has  led  the  march  of  all  knowledge,  all  civilization,  and 
opens  to-day  in  fuller  light  the  mind  of  Him  in  whom  are 
hid  all  treasures  of  wisdom.  But  it  is  a  gift  which  links 
our  freedom  with  our  obedience  ;  and  as  we  use  or  abuse 
it,  we  shall  answer  to  its  Giver.  If  we  obscure,  if  we  dis- 
tort, if  we  despise  or  neglect  it,  we  can  make  the  light 
darkness  ;  if  we  read,  know,  follow  it.  in  his  spirit  who 
inspired  its  truth,  we  shall  gain  the  knowledge  which  is 
eternal  life. 


Majesty  and  Holiness 


OF 


THE  BIBLE 


REV.  MATTHEW  SIMPSON,  D.  D.,  LL.D., 

BISHOP  OF  THE  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH. 


_d 


MAJESTY 


AND 


HOLINESS  OF  THE  BIBLE 


Unlike  other  books,  the  Bible  has  neither  preface 
nor  introduction.  Nor  has  it  definitions,  postulates, 
axioms  or  elementary  theorems  on  which  to  build  its 
science  of  theology,  or  to  prepare  its  students  for  its 
higher  revelations  or  developments.  Its  first  words 
bring  us  face  to  face  with  eternity  and  divinity,  and  solve 
the  perplexing  problem  of  the  origin  of  matter.  Terse 
as  are  its  utterances,  however,  and  suddenly  as  they 
come  upon  us,  there  is  a  sublimity  and  grandeur  in  its 
representations  of  the  divine  character  which  no  other 
writings  contain.  In  the  words  of  the  Psalmist,  '*  He  is 
clothed  with  majesty." 

The  Scriptures  never  attempt  to  prove  the  existence 
of  God.  To  the  Jew  in  the  time  of  Moses,  that  was  un- 
,  necessary.  Had  he  not  beheld  the  wonderful  series  of 
miracles  which  astonished  and  finally  overwhelmed  the 
mind  of  Pharaoh  ?  Had  he  not  known  of  the  destruc- 
tive tempests,  and  fearful  darkness,  and  of  the  avenging 

22 


254  MAJESTY  AND  HOLINESS 

angel  ?  Had  he  not  walked  through  the  Red  sea,  and 
joined  in  the  triumphant  song  of  deliverance,  when  the 
Egyptian  hosts  perished  in  the  recurrent  waves?  Had 
not  the  pillar  of  fire  shined  on  his  pathway,  and  had 
he  not  heard  the  voice  as  of  a  trumpet,  which,  from 
Sinai's  fiery  summit,  proclaimed  the  eternal  law  ?  He 
knew  there  was  a  God.  Nor  do  the  Scriptures  propose 
to  prove  the  attributes  of  God.  They  shine  forth  in 
his  wonderful  actions,  which  were  to  his  ancient  people 
familiar  throughout  their  history.  But,  ever  and  anon, 
referring  to  these  great  facts,  the  inspired  penman  utters 
the  most  beautiful  and  enrapturing  views  of  the  divine 
character  and  government. 

The  majesty  of  these  Biblical  representations  may  be 
referred,  chiefly  to  the  names  given  to  the  Deity,  the 
ACTIONS  which  he  performed,  and  the  language  and 
SYMBOLS  employed  in  delineating  his  attributes  and 
government. 

The  names  by  which  he  is  revealed  fill  us  with 
thoughts  of  his  wonderful  greatness  and  glory :  and  yet 
these  terms  so  imperfectly  reveal  him,  that  a  fearful 
mystery  environs  his  character.  "  Clouds  and  darkness 
are  round  about  him,  righteousness  and  judgment  are 
the  habitation  of  his  throne."  He  is  "  In  the  beginning, 
God:"  the  "  Elohiin''  the  strong  and  "mighty  one." 
Yet  mystery  is  here.  **  Elohim  "  is  plural ;  yet  as  he 
creates,  the  verb  is  singular.  He  is  more  than  one,  as 
in  his  soleness,  from  the  depth  of  eternity,  his  rays  of 
briofhtness  burst  on  human  vision.     He  is  but  one,  as  the 


OF  THE  BIBLE.  255 

universe  issues  from  the  fiat  of  his  almighty  power.  He 
is  cl,  the  mighty,  shaddai,  the  almighty,  the  all-sufficient ; 
he  is  adonai,  Hie  governor,  the  king,  the  judge. 

But  a  thousand  years  have  passed  away,  and  God's 
promises  remain  unfulfilled.  The  seed  of  Abraham 
were  to  be  as  the  stars  of  heaven  and  as  the  sand  on  the 
seashore  for  multitude.  They  were  to  possess  the  land 
of  Canaan.  Kings  were  to  be  of  his  lineage.  Yet  his 
posterity  are  still  in  bondage  in  Egypt.  They  are  slaves 
to  taskmasters  :  they  groan  under  the  lash ;  their  male 
children  are  inhumanly  destroyed.  Moses,  who  sought 
to  help,  has  fled  to  the  desert.  Forty  years  has  he  been 
a  shepherd  ;  and  now,  an  old  man,  he  is  ready  to  de- 
spair. God  comes  in  the  burning  bush  ;  it  is  not  an 
exhibition  of  power  for  which  Moses  yearned,  it  is  to 
know  that  God  will  fulfil  his  word — that  his  purposes 
have  not  changed.  He  receives  a  commission  to  deliver 
the  Israelites — a  looking,  longing,  suffering  people,  who 
are  crying  for  help  and  hope  for  a  Saviour.  But  what 
shall  Moses  say }  How  beautifully  simple  is  the  narra- 
tive :  "  And  Moses  said  unto  God  [Elohim],  Behold,  when 
I  come  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  and  shall  say  unto 
them.  The  God  of  your  fathers  hath  sent  me  unto  you, 
and  they  shall  say  to  me.  What  is  his  name  1  what  shall 
I  say  unto  them }  And  God  [Elohim],  said  unto  Moses,  I 
AM  THAT  I  AM  ;  and  thus  shalt  thou  say  unto  the  children 
of  Israel,  I  am  hath  sent  me  unto  you." 

This  name,  ydiovaJi  or  yahveh,  I  am  that  I  aiUf  sig- 
nifies self  existence,  perpetual  existence,  immutability. 


256  MAJESTY  AND  HOLINESS 

He  remembered  his  covenant  with  Abraham,  and  he 
came  to  fulfil  it.  Four  hundred  and  thirty  years  had  the 
patriarch's  posterity  been  in  a  strange  land,  and  now 
about  to  show  that, 

"  What  his  mouth  in^truth  had  said, 
His  own  ahnighty  arm  would  do." 

He  declares  his  perpetual  sameness.  "  He  is  the  same  yes- 
terday, to-day  and  for  ever."  To  confirm  Moses  more  fully, 
he  said  again,  "  I  am  Jehovah.  I  appeared  unto  Abraham, 
unto  Isaac,  and  unto  Jacob,  by  the  name  of  God  almigh- 
ty, but  by  my  name  Jehovah  was  I  not  known  to  them  ; 
and  I  have  also  established  my  covenant  with  them  to 
give  them  the  land  of  Canaan,  the  land  of  their  pil- 
grimage wherein  they  were  strangers.  And  I  have  also 
heard  the  groanings  of  the  children  of  Israel,  whom  the 
Egyptians  keep  in  bondage,  and  I  have  remembered  my 
covenant,  and  I  will  bring  you  in  unto  the  land,  concern- 
ing the  which  I  did  swear  to  give  it  to  Abraham,  to 
Isaac,  and  to  Jacob." 

These  two  elements,  almightiness  to  do  and  un- 
changing and  unchangeable  purpose  to  accomplish,  give 
to  humanity  all  possible  assurance.  The  whole  line  of 
providences  recorded  in  the  Bible  but  illustrates  these 
great  attributes,  and  teaches  us  to  become  followers  of 
them  who  through  faith  and  patience  inherit  the  promi- 
ses. Such  a  wonderful  impression  did  the  revelation  of 
God,  as  the  /  am,  make  upon  the  Jew,  that  he  utters 
not  that  word,  but  substitutes  for  it  Adonaiy  or  Shaddai. 


OF  THE  BIBLE. 


257 


It  represents  an  ever-present  God,  an  eye  never  slumber- 
ing, a  promise  ever  borne  in  mind,  a  memory  which  can- 
not forget,  a  purpose  that  will  not  change,  an  ever-watch- 
ful Jehovah,  who  listens  to  every  cry,  counts  every  tear, 
fathoms  the  depths  of  every  sorrow,  and  in  due  time  will 
appear  as  the  almighty  deliverer. 

This  God  of  power  and  of  self-existence  appears  "  In 
the  beginningr  When  was  that  beginning  ?  It  was  before 
creation,  for  he  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  And 
in  his  psalm,  Moses  exclaims,  •*  Before  the  mountains 
were  brought  forth,  or  ever  thou  hadst  formed  the  earth 
and  the  world,  even  from  everlasting  to  everlasting,  thou 
art  God."  And  of  Christ,  the  apostle  says,  "  He  is 
before  all  things,  and  by  him  all  things  consist."  "  All 
things  were  made  by  him,  and  for  him,  and  without  him 
was  not  anything  made  that  was  made."  If  the  question 
is  repeated,  when  was  that  beginning }  I  answer,  I  can- 
not tell.  The  human  intellect  cannot  estimate  distances 
either  in  space  or  time,  but  by  intermediate  measures  or 
periods.  Moses  looks  away  back  through  the  vista  of 
time,  and  as  he  passes  unnumbered  periods  by  the  way, 
on  and  on,  he  beholds  a  beginning.  God  is  there,  sole, 
imderived,  almighty.  Those  of  you  who  have  seen  the 
diorama  of  Paris,  either  in  that  city  or  at  our  Centennial, 
know  how  almost  impossible  it  is  to  distinguish  distances 
by  the  unaided  eye.  So,  as  we  gaze  at  the  heavens  on  a 
cloudless  night,  the  moon,  the  planets,  and  the  fixed 
stars,  shine  on  us  as  in  the  same  vast  expanse,  and  seem 
about   equidistant.     Yet,    when  we   have    reached    that 

22* 


258  MAJESTY  AND  HOLINESS 

moon,  we  have  taken  only  a  step  towards  the  sun.    Saturn, 
which  shines  so  near  in  the  western  sky,  is  five  times 
as   distant  as   the   sun   himself;  and   that   comet,  just 
'starting  on  its  distant  journey,  so  distant  as  to  be  five 
hundred  years  beyond  our  sight  till  it  return  again — in 
that  flight  shall  not  reach  even  the  neighborhood  of  those 
fixed  stars.     If  we  refer  to  what  was  a  hundred  years  ago 
the  general  opinion,  creation  was  supposed  to  be  some 
six  thousand  years  old.     That  period  is  vastly  distant. 
You  step  in  Westminster  Abbey,  among  the  dead  of  a 
thousand  years.     It  seems  like  an  eternity  past.     You 
visit  the  pyramids  of  Egypt,  where  Napoleon  saw  forty 
centuries  looking  down  on  his  troops,  and  still  the  begin- 
ning lies  far  beyond.     Refer  then  to  geological  specula- 
tion.    Read  the  record  of  vast  changes — of  beds  of  fire 
solidifying  in  ages  past  into  granitic  rocks  ;  deposits  of 
limestone  and  coal  and  sandstones,  for  long  centuries, 
from  the  overflowing  sea  ;  wide-reaching  beds   of  rock 
formed  of  shells  so  small  the  microscope  alone  can  show 
their  form — and  the  beginning  retrocedes  thousands,  if 
not  millions  of  years.     Still  we  see  "  In  the  beginning, 
God."     Go  to  the  astronomer,  especially  of  the  evolution 
school,  and  he  tells  you  of  fire-mist,  and  of  its  condensa- 
tion into  suns,  planets,  and  worlds,  long  myriads  of  years 
before  earth  had  her  form.     He  fancies  stars  so  far  away, 
that  their  light  would  require  more  than  five  hundred 
thousand  years  to  reach  our  earth.     Be  it  so,  yet  we  have 
"  In  the  beginning,  God."     Far  as  the  geological  period 
antedates  the  old  era,  far  as  the  astronomical  era  pre- 


OF  THE  BIBLE.  259 

cedes  that,  so  far,  nay  a  million  times  farther,  antedate 
the  time,  yet  both  reason  and  revelation  cry  out,  "  In 
the  beginning,  God."  "  He  is  the  high  and  lofty  one 
that  inhabiteth  eternity."  "  Thy  throne  is  established  of 
old,  and  thou  art  from  everlasting  to  everlasting."  We 
join  with  the  apostle  and  with  the  innumerable  hosts  of 
heaven,  in  saying,  *'  To  the  king  eternal,  immortal,  invis- 
ible, the  only  wise  God,  be  honor  and  glory  for  ever  and 
ever." 

The  Bible  represents  God,  not  only  as  eternal,  but 
as  the  creator  of  all  things.  How  different  is  this  from 
the  fancies  of  ancient  mythology.  Jupiter,  "  the  father 
of  gods  and  men,"  "  the  omnipotent  father,"  as  he  is 
sometimes  called,  was  the  son  of  Saturn,  who  had  de- 
throned his  father.  They  were  born  upon  the  earth  ; 
but  matter  was  eternal.  The  heavenly  court  was  on  and 
above  Olympus.  Gods  were,  as  Geiger  well  says,  "  a  tur- 
bulent aristocracy :  one  mightier  than  the  rest  but  not 
almighty."  Juno,  the  wife  of  Jupiter,  succeeded  in  put- 
ting him  to  sleep  during  a  battle  of  the  Greeks  before 
Troy.  So  angry  was  he  with  her,  for  raising  a  storm  to 
impede  Hercules,  that  he  suspended  her  from  heaven  by 
a  chain,  with  anvils  tied  to  her  feet ;  and  when  her  son 
Vulcan  attempted  to  interfere,  he  hurled  him  headlong  to 
the  isle  of  Lemnos.  Among  the  Hindoos  the  ancient 
Veda  shows  that  the  gods  they  worshipped  were  the 
elements,  which  were  thus  in  being  before  their  gods. 
The  later  philosophical  speculations  speak  of  a  first 
cause,  respecting  which  they  utter  some  beautiful  expres- 


26o  MAJESTY  AND  HOLINESS 

sions.  Yet  this  first  cause  wakes  and  sleeps,  has  days  and 
nights — long  nights  of  twelve  million  years.  He  creates 
lower  deities  which  form  the  earth  and  preside  over  the 
elements,  himself  absorbed  in  profound  contemplation  ; 
and  of  these  deities  which  control  the  earth,  some  are  pa- 
trons of  evil. 

The  Scriptures  rise  infinitely  beyond  and  above  all 
such  descriptions.  Pure  and  holy  in  his  majesty — the 
only  Creator,  "  He  spake  and  it  was  done  :  He  commanded 
and  it  stood  fast."  "  By  the  word  of  the  Lord  were  the 
heavens  made,  and  all  the  host  of  them  by  the  breath  of 
his  mouth."  In  the  Greek  mythology,  starry  Uranus 
was  the  offspring  of  the  earth.  The  earth  was  the  grand 
centre  around  which  the  heavens  moved.  But  while  the 
ancient  prophets  knew  not  the  true  system  of  the  uni- 
verse, yet  by  them,  God  declares,  "  Heaven  is  my  throne, 
and  the  earth  is  my  footstool."  Indeed,  it  is  one  of  the 
surprising  facts,  that  the  discoveries  of  science  and  the 
extension  of  knowledge  give  increasing  sublimity  and 
grandeur  to  the  Biblical  representations  of  God  ;  while 
they  completely  expose  the  puerility  and  falsehood  of 
the  ancient  mythology,  and  of  other  systems  of  error. 
According  to  the  Bible,  not  only  was  the  earth  created, 
but  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  and  all  the  "hosts  of 
heaven."  Neither  Moses  nor  David  probably  knew  much 
about  these  hosts.  For  many  long  centuries  they  were 
not  comprehended  by  science.  No  telescope  had  been 
formed  to  gather  and  concentrate  their  distant  rays. 
To-day  that  host  is  innumerable.     The  distant  nebulae 


OF  THE  BIBLE.  261 

have  been  resolved,  and  all  those  worlds  which  appear, 
where  light  just  trembles  on  the  verge  of  shade,  are  a 
part  of  these  hosts  which  Elohhn  created.  How  full  and 
comprehensive  is  the  declaration  of  Nehemiah,  "  Thou 
hast  made  heaven,  the  heaven  of  heavens,  with  all  their 
hosts,  the  earth  and  all  things  that  are  therein  ;  the  seas 
and  all  that  is  therein,  and  thou  preservest  them  all,  and 
the  host  of  heaven  worshippeth  thee."  The  patriarch 
Job  exclaims,  "  Which  alone  spreadeth  out  the  heavens, 
and  treadeth  upon  the  waves  of  the  sea;  which  maketh 
Arcturus,  Orion,  and  Pleiades,  and  the  chambers  of  the 
south." 

The  shepherd  company,  with  Moses  in  the  wilder- 
ness, knew  little  of  the  vastness  of  the  universe.  Possi- 
bly we  ourselves  have  only  yet  seen  the  beginning  of 
the  pathway  that  leads  to  the  throne.  The  language  of 
Scripture,  however,  suits  all  stages  of  knowledge,  all  de- 
grees of  development.  God  is  alike  the  creator,  whether 
there  be  few  worlds  or  myriads.  Let  us  think  for  a  mo- 
ment what  is  involved  in  creation.  Our  whole  visible 
sky  may  be  but  as  a  little  island  in  the  heavens,  beyond 
whose  surrounding  seas  lie  grander  islands,  or  stretch 
out  vast  continents  of  systems,  full  of  their  Creator's 
glory.  In  our  visible  sky,  our  solar  system  occupies  but 
a  little  space.  In  our  system,  the  earth  is  scarcely  visi- 
ble to  many  of  its  sister  planets.  Yet  on  that  earth, 
what  forms  of  life — what  myriads  of  living  beings  walk, 
or  fly,  or  creep  upon  the  earth.  The  little  branches  of 
moss  that  scarcely  tinge  with  color  the  surface  of  the 


262  MAJESTY  AND  HOLINESS 

rock,  afford  shelter  and  sustenance  for  millions  of  animal- 
culae.  The  sea  is  full  of  life.  Every  drop  of  water  teems 
with  being.  Yon  phosphorescent  glow  on  the  ocean's  sur- 
face is  from  multitudes  beyond  number.  The  air  is  full  of 
livmg  germs.  Tyndall,  in  a  recent  lecture,  states  that  in 
his  experiments  they  would  pass  through  the  pressed 
cotton  wadding  in  his  tubes,  and  boiling  oil  did  not  de- 
stroy their  life. 

In  creation,  as  revealed  in  the  Scriptures,  we  have 
eternity  of  being.  God  appears  uncreated,  underived, 
sole,  self-existing.  He  conceives  creation.  He  thinks 
of  matter,  and  chooses  its  properties  ;  determines  mag- 
nitudes, distances,  motions,  and  constituents  of  all  worlds  ; 
conceives  all  forms  of  being  in  heaven,  earth,  air,  or  sky — 
their  sizes,  organs,  functions,  appetites,  instincts,  desires, 
perpetuation — their  inner  structure,  their  food,  growth, 
period  of  life,  and  decay.  Not  only  all  existing  forms, 
but  all  possible  forms  lie  open  to  his  inspection.  Then 
tliere  is  consciousness  of  creating  power ;  and  he  wills 
that  his  thoughts  shall  take  form.  At  his  will,  all  worlds, 
all  forms  of  matter,  all  degrees  of  life,  from  the  animal- 
cule and  the  worm,  to  the  angel  and  seraph,  spring  into 
being,  and  are  simply  his  thoughts  made  visible  or  so- 
lidified. From  himself  alone  the  matter  of  all  worlds  has 
issued ;  and  yet,  undiminished  in  power  and  grandeur,  he 
is  the  same  great  and  glorious  Jehovah,  dwelling  in  light, 
whom  no  man  hath  seen  or  can  see.  He  is  God  over  all, 
blessed  for  evermore. 

A  moment's  consideration  will  show  that  in  creation, 


OF  THE  BIBLE.  263 

omniscience  is  involved,  as  well  as  omnipotence.  God 
must  know  all  that  he  has  made  ;  must  know  them  not 
only  in  their  existences,  but  in  their  possibilities;  not 
only  lo-day,  but  in  their  future  ;  not  only  in  the  individ- 
ual's form,  but  in  all  to  issue  from  them.  Such  a  knowl- 
edge— how  vast !  He  hath  said,  "  No  man  can  see  my 
face  and  live."  If  this  referred  simply  to  comprehending 
God,  in  his  knowledge  alone,  it  would  be  literally  true. 
No  human  intellect  could  bear  one  hour's  grasp  of  God's 
knowledge.  Fancy  that  to-night  you  were  lifted  above 
this  great  city,  with  its  million  of  inhabitants — the  roof 
taken  from  every  abode — before  your  inspection  lies  open 
every  act  of  every  being  at  every  moment,  all  which 
you  must  see.  Every  word  reaches  your  ear,  and  you 
must  listen  to  all ;  every  form  of  sorrow,  every  cry  of 
agony.  Not  only  visible  acts,  but  every  secret  plan  of 
purity  or  vice,  of  virtue  or  wickedness,  every  scheme  of 
benevolence,  and  every  purpose  of  riot,  theft,  licentious- 
ness, robbery,  and  murder ;  every  pang  of  the  agonizing 
wife,  mother,  or  child ;  the  anxieties  of  the  rich,  and  the 
distresses  of  the  poor.  Multiply  these  by  a  thousand — 
for  a  thousand  millions  of  such  beings  people  our  earth. 
Hold  in  your  memory — nay,  ever-present  before  you — all 
the  acts  of  these  millions  in  the  moments  past,  while  the 
present  moment  unfolds  its  vastness,  and  add  to  that  a 
foreknowledge  of  the  interminable  future.  Under  such 
a  pressure  every  nervous  system  must  be  prostrate,  every 
brain  must  reel.  God  alone  knows,  sees,  understands  all  ; 
and  he  is  never  weary,  he  never  slumbereth  or  sleepeth. 


264  MAJESTY  AND  HOLINESS 

So,  also,  omnipresence  is  an  essential  attribute.  God 
must  be  where  he  places  his  works.  He  must  fill  heaven 
and  earth.  He  is  there  by  his  power  to  constitute  and 
uphold — by  his  wisdom  to  guide,  by  his  own  essential 
presence  to  give  life  and  breath  to  all  that  exist.  For 
"  our  breath  is  in  his  hand,  and  his  are  all  our  ways  ;"  "  it 
is  in  him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being."  The 
Psalmist  well  exclaims,  "  O  Lord,  thou  hast  searched  me 
and  known  me ;  thou  knowest  my  downsitting  and  my 
uprising,  thou  understandest  my  thought  afar  off.  Thou 
compassest  my  path,  and  my  lying  down,  and  art  ac- 
quainted with  all  my  ways.  For  there  is  not  a  word  in 
my  tongue,  but  lo,  O  Lord,  thou  knowest  it  altogether. 
Thou  hast  beset  me  behind  and  before,  and  laid  thy  hand 
upon  me.  Such  knowledge  is  too  wonderful  for  me  :  it  is 
high,  I  cannot  attain  to  it.  Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy 
Spirit,  or  whither  shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence  1  If  I 
ascend  up  into  heaven,  thou  art  there ;  if  I  make  my  bed 
in  hell,  behold  thou  art  there.  If  I  take  the  wings  of  the 
morning  and  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea, 
even  there  shall  thy  hand  lead  me  and  thy  right  hand 
shall  hold  me." 

The  figure  of  the  wings  of  the  morning  is  another 
illustration  of  the  expansion  which  science  gives  to  the 
symbols  of  the  Bible.  David  stood  on  Mount  Zion,  or 
the  Mount  of  Olives,  and  saw  the  morning  coming  up 
over  the  distant  hills  of  Moab.  The  gentle  breeze  came 
from  the  Mediterranean  to  meet  the  rising  sun.  Far 
north  and  south  the  growing  light  spread  out  over  the 


OF  THE  BIBLE.  265 

horizon,  and  on  and  on  the  morning,  with  its  outspread 
wings,  gently  moved  upward  and  westward  till  it  reached 
the  Mediterranean  Sea;  still  on  it  moved  over  its  length- 
ened expanse  until  it  passed  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  and 
reached  the  uttermost  sea.  Away  in  that  vast  ocean, 
the  sky  alone  encircling  and  on  every  side  kissing  the 
boundless  deep,  he  sat  in  fancy,  as  the  lone  seabird  rests 
upon  the  waves.  Even  there  God  held  him  by  his  right 
hand.  David  knew  nothing  of  this  vast  continent  that 
lay  beyond  that  uttermost  sea  ;  nor  how  God  in  the  ages 
to  come  would  hold  in  his  hand  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  and 
keep  them  in  safety  as  they  crossed  that  vast  ocean  ;  nor 
how  he  would  give  them  this  great  land  for  the  founding 
of  a  great  nation,  across  whose  wide  breast  the  psalms  of 
David  should  be  read  by  every  child.  Nor  did  he  know 
of  that  other  sea  beyond,  which  should  give  up  its  multi- 
tudinous islands  to  the  service  of  Christ  Nor  did  he 
know  how  swiftly  those  wings  of  the  morning  moved,  as 
so  gently  and  silently  they  advanced,  and  scarcely  seem- 
ed to  move  at  all.  Yet  we  now  know  that  more  swiftly 
than  the  locomotive  at  its  utmost  speed,  more  swiftly  than 
the  tempest  in  its  fiercest  fury,  these  wings  of  the  morn- 
ing have  sped  onward  more  than  a  thousand  miles  per 
hour  ever  since  creation's  dawn  ;  but  they  have  never 
preceded  God  !  Were  we  to  note  a  tithe  of  the  passages 
that  vividly  portray  the  doings  and  attributes  of  God,  the 
evening  hour  would  find  our  work  but  fairly  begun.  He 
is  mighty  beyond  description ;  he  looks,  and  the  earth 

trembles ;  he  touches  the  hills,  and  they  smoke ;  he  holds 

23 


266  MAJESTY  AND  HOLINESS 

the  winds  in  his  fists,  and  the  sea  in  the  hollow  of  his 
hand ;  he  bows  the  heavens  and  comes  down ;  he  rides 
upon  a  cherub  and  flies  on  the  wings  of  the  wind  ;  "he 
hath  his  way  in  the  whirlwind  and  in  the  storm,  and  the 
clouds  are  the  dust  of  his  feet." 

Among  the  ancients,  and  in  all  heathen  countries, 
there  were  gods  many  and  lords  many,  but  the  Scrip- 
tures proclaim,  "  The  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord,  there  is 
none  else."  Diverse  elements  of  nature,  distinctions  in 
territory  and  in  nations  and  distant  worlds,  gave  color  to 
the  idea  of  a  divided  jurisdiction,  and  different  heathen 
gods  reigned  like  kings  or  emperors  over  their  separate 
territory.  But  nature,  with  every  advance  of  science, 
proclaims  the  unity  of  God.  The  earth  is  shaped  by  one 
hand ;  its  different  sections  are  composed  of  the  same 
elements ;  currents  commingle  the  waters  of  the  tropics 
and  the  poles,  and  the  streams  of  air  are  constantly  pass- 
ing from  north  to  south,  and  returning  again.  Men  are 
of  one  great  family ;  multitudinous  dialects  and  lan- 
guages spring  from  common  roots.  Gravitation  not  only 
binds  our  earth,  but  sweeps  the  heavens.  One  law  of 
motion,  one  power  of  attraction,  encircles  the  universe. 
The  spectroscope  reveals  the  fact  that  the  sun  and  the 
stars  have  in  them  many  of  the  same  substances  which 
our  earth  contains.  The  most  advanced  evolutionists  of 
our  day  have  no  trouble  in  resolving,  by  simple  laws,  the 
original  fire-mist  into  all  the  various  worlds.  Their  only 
trouble  is  in  originating  the  fire-mist  and  the  laws,  with- 
out a  Creator.    Moreover,  such  are  the  traces  of  affinity  in 


OF  THE  BIBLE.  267 

all  classes  of  animals,  that  they  can  evolve  them  from  a 
protoplasm  or  a  cell,  through  all  the  infinitude  of  animal 
bcinir.  God  has  written  his  oneness  in  all  nature  :  man 
is  liable  to  impute  that  oneness  to  nature's  self.  Sci- 
ence, reason,  and  revelation,  not  only  unite  in  singing, 
with  Addison's  orbs, 

"  The  hand  that  made  us  is  divine," 

but  also  that  we  have  but  one  Creator,  the  only  true  God. 

This  Jehovah  of  the  Bible,  the  eternal,  omnipotent, 
omniscient,  omnipresent  creator  and  upholder,  is  not  only 
presented  as  the  one  governor  and  director  of  the  uni- 
verse, but  also  as  a  being  of  boundless  wisdom,  justice, 
goodness,  and  love.  Traces  of  his  wisdom  are  every- 
where seen ;  the  fitness  of  things  reaches  us  at  every 
turn,  and  we  can  well  say,  "  O  Lord,  how  manifold  are 
thy  works  :  in  wisdom  hast  thou  made  them  all."  So, 
too,  he  cares  for,  protects,  and  loves  what  his  hands  have 
made.  "  His  tender  mercies  are  over  all  his  works." 
"  The  eyes  of  all  wait  upon  thee,  and  thou  givest  them 
their  meat  in  due  season.  Thou  openest  thy  hand  and 
satisfiest  the  desire  of  every  living  thing."  Language 
can  go  no  farther  in  describing  the  wonderful  watchful- 
ness and  care  of  Divine  providence.  Every  individual, 
of  every  class  of  animated  being,  turns  its  eyes  to  God. 
He  hears  its  cry,  he  opens  his  hand  and  supplies  every 
want. 

The  majesty  of  God  is  grandly  shown  in  his  tender- 
ness and  love.     That  love  is  boundless  in  its  subjects, 


268  MAJESTY  AND  HOLINESS 

reaching  in  some  of  its  forms  to  all  creation.  He  is  the 
God  of  the  suffering,  of  the  fatherless,  and  of  the  widow. 
His  eye  is  on  the  minute  as  well  as  the  vast ;  not  a  spar- 
row falls  to  the  ground  without  his  notice  ;  the  very  hairs 
of  our  head  are  all  numbered.  This  love  is  boundless  in 
its  resources.  He  gives  not  as  the  world  gives.  He  hath 
infinite  treasures,  and  is  ready  to  bestow  them  upon  man. 
This  love  led  him  to  give  his  own  Son  to  die  for  rebel- 
lious man.  Such  is  its  boundlessness,  that  the  whole 
character  of  God,  with  all  his  glorious  attributes,  has  its 
grand  summation  in  the  expression,  "  God  is  love." 

To  all  other  characteristics  is  to  be  added  immutabil- 
ity. This  has  already  been  noticed  in  the  name  of  Jehor 
vah,  the  everlasting  I  Am,  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega, 
the  first  and  the  last.  Everywhere  else  we  meet  with 
change :  the  grass  springs  up  and  withers  ;  flowers  bloom 
and  fade  ;  trees  grow  and  decay.  Man  in  the  pride  of 
his  glory  is  swept  away.  The  seasons  change,  the  moun- 
tains crumble,  the  very  heavens  grow  old.  The  best  of 
men  forget  their  promises,  or  change  their  purposes.  But 
God  is  unchangeable.  Compared  with  creation,  the  in- 
spired penman  says,  "  They  shall  perish,  but  thou  shall 
endure  ;  yea,  all  of  them  shall  wax  old  like  a  garment : 
as  a  vesture  shalt  thou  change  them,  and  they  shall  be 
changed;  but  thou  art  the  same,  and  thy  years  shall 
have  no  end."  Men  have  thought  to  assail  our  faith  in 
God  and  his  word,  by  attempting  to  prove  the  wonderful 
age  of  our  earth  and  of  the  heavens.  So  far  from  weak- 
ening our  faith,  if  true,  it  would  but  confirm  it.     Has  it 


OF  THE  BIBLE.  269 

been  untold  millions  of  years  since  God  formed  this  earth 
for  human  habitation,  or  since  he  laid  its  foundation  ? 
"  Known  unto  God  are  all  his  works  from  the  besrinninc: 
of  the  world !"  Nay,  he  hath  chosen  us  in  Christ  **  be- 
fore the  foundation  of  the  world."  Have  his  thoughts 
been  on  us  for  millions  of  years  ?  Did  he  purpose  to 
give  his  Son  to  die  that  we  might  be  saved  ?  Did  that 
Son,  in  his  omniscience,  gaze  on  Calvary  for  thousands 
of  years,  and  ever  moi  ing  towards  it,  send  his  voice 
through  the  ages,  saying,  "  Lo,  I  come "  ?  Then  why 
should  we  fear  for  the  future  ?  Heart  and  flesh  may 
fail,  but  God  will  be  the  strength  and  portion  of  our 
heart  for  ever. 

The  majesty  of  the  Scriptures  also  appears  in  the 
representation  of  the  plans  of  God  in  his  universal  gov- 
ernment. Scarcely  had  sin  entered  into  the  world  and 
triumphed  over  man,  than  the  purpose  was  announced  to 
overthrow  evil  by  one  of  Eve's  descendants.  To  the  ser- 
pent it  was  said,  "  And  I  will  put  enmity  between  thee 
and  the  woman,  and  between  thy  seed  and  her  seed  :  it 
shall  bruise  thy  head,  and  thou  shalt  bruise  his  heel." 
To  Eve  it  was  a  consoling  promise,  though  she  little 
knew  the  time  that  must  elapse.  With  God,  in  carrying 
out  his  great  plans,  "one  day  is  as  a  thousand  years,  and 
a  thousand  years  as  one  day."  At  one  period  centuries 
pass,  and  scarcely  a  change  occurs ;  then  in  rapid,  un- 
broken succession  follow  events  so  strange  and  startling, 
as  if  centuries  were  condensed  into  a  day.      After  the 

promise  to  Eve,  ages  passed,  and  the  results  of  sin  cov- 

23* 


2  70  MAJESTY  AND  HOLINESS 

ered  the  earth  with  crime.  Centuries  pass  again,  and  a 
patriarch  is  sent  to  Canaan.  To  him  the  promise  is  re- 
newed. Four  hundred  and  thirty  years  elapse,  and  his 
seed  have  no  inheritance ;  yet  a  sceptre  of  power  ulti- 
mately rises  in  Judah,  and  a  king  of  might  in  Jerusalem. 
Again  centuries  pass,  and  a  captive  people  weep  by  the 
rivers  of  Babylon  and  hang  their  harps  on  the  willows. 
Restored  again  just  as  the  last  feature  of  nationality  was 
to  pass  away,  and  Judah  was  to  be  enrolled  for  taxation, 
Shiloh,  the  promised  deliverer,  came,  and  the  song  of  the 
prophet  was  fulfilled  :  "  Unto  us  a  child  is  born,  unto  us 
a  son  is  given,  .  .  .  and  his  name  shall  be  called  Wonder- 
ful, Counsellor,  The  mighty  God,  The  everlasting  Father, 
The  Prince  of  Peace."  In  all  these  changes  God  reigned 
as  a  king :  he  subdued  and  scattered  nations ;  he  gov- 
erned the  elements  ;  he  was  the  triumphant  conqueror. 
He  used  nations  as  his  scourges,  and  then  hurled  them 
back  to  oblivion.  Changes  of  every  kind  were  made  sub- 
servient to  his  plans,  and  the  powers  of  earth  bowed  be- 
fore him.  He  is  represented  as  sitting  on  a  throne ;  that 
throne  is  high  and  lifted  up,  and  his  train  filled  the  tem- 
ple. A  sapphire  firmament  is  under  his  feet,  a  fiery 
stream  issues  from  before  him.  His  agents  are  power- 
ful and  innumerable.  Thousands  of  thousands  minister 
unto  him,  and  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  stand 
before  him.  The  kings  of  the  earth  rise  against  him, 
but  "  he  that  sitteth  in  the  circle  of  the  heavens  shall 
laugh,  the  Lord  shall  have  them  in  derision."  After  all 
these   majestic    prophecies    and   announcements,   when 


OF  THE  BIBLE,  271 

Christ  came,  he  was  the  babe  of  Bethlehem,  the  man  of 
sorrows,  and  acquainted  with  grief ;  he  was  crucified, 
dead,  and  buried.  Then  his  glorious  triumphs  visibly 
began.  His  church  was  founded,  his  truth  spread,  his 
kingdom  enlarged,  and  he  is  sitting  on  the  throne  of  gov- 
ernment expecting  until  his  enemies  shall  be  made  his 
footstool. 

Jesus  on  earth  reminds  his  disciples  of  the  power  and 
immutability  of  the  great  "  /  amr  To  fulfil  his  covenant 
with  Abraham,  God  in  the  burning  bush  announced  that 
name  to  Moses.  To  fulfil  an  older  promise,  made  in 
Eden,  long  before  the  time  of  Abraham,  Jesus  came  to 
earth,  and  he  said,  *'  Before  Abraham  was  I  am."  God 
to  fulfil  the  one,  appeared  in  fire  ;  Jesus  to  fulfil  the  other, 
appeared  in  flesh:  in  his  resurrection  from  the  grave, 
with  its  wonderful  precedent  and  accompanying  phenom- 
ena— in  his  ascension  to  heaven,  while  the  angels  sang, 
"  Lift  up  your  heads,  ye  everlasting  doors,  and  the  King 
of  Glory  shall  come  in" — his  sacrifice  was  accepted, 
his  mission  w^as  crowned  with  glory,  and  the  Spirit  has 
been  sent  to  enlighten  and  to  strengthen  his  followers. 
He  is  himself  represented  as  caring  for  his  churches, 
walking  amidst  the  golden  candlesticks,  and  holding  the 
stars  in  his  right  hand. 

His  great  plan  for  the  overthrow  of  evil  involves 
in  itself  all  minor  plans.  Here  and  there  glimpses  of 
his  work  are  given.  Men  gather  in  the  plain  of  Shinar, 
to  build  a  tower  which  shall  reach  up  to  heaven,  lest 
they  be  scattered  abroad.     Does   God  crumble  it  by  an 


272  MAJESTY  AND  HOLINESS 

earthquake,  or  destroy  it  by  lightning  ?  He  simply 
touches  their  lips,  and  they  give  a  slightly  different  vi- 
bration to  the  air  which  they  exhale.  Their  languages 
are  confounded,  and  by  his  breath  they  are  scattered  over 
the  face  of  the  earth.  Again  one  hundred  and  eighty 
thousand  men  surround  the  capital  of  his  people,  and  ex- 
pect an  easy  victory  ;  but  the  air  is  changed,  probably 
noxious  vapors  ascend,  and  in  the  morning  the  magnifi- 
cent host  lie  dead  upon  the  plain.  With  him  it  is  easy 
to  work  "  by  many  or  by  few." 

The  years  through  which  we  have  just  passed  are 
years  of  his  power.  The  unification  of  nations,  the  prog- 
ress of  invention,  art,  and  science,  the  diffusion  of  knowl- 
edge, communication  by  steamers,  railroads  and  tele- 
graphs, emancipation  of  slaves,  the  downfall  of  despot- 
ism, the  overthrow  of  the  papal  temporal  power,  the  ten- 
dency to  dissever  church  and  state — all  point  to  the  tri- 
umph of  Messiah's  kingdom.  The  present  war  will  be 
no  exception.  England  may  join  with  the  Turk — the 
cross  may  be  carried  into  the  conflict  to  support  the  cres- 
cent, but  though  hand  join  in  hand,  the  wicked  shall  not 
go  unpunished.  Sooner  or  later  Mohammedanism  shall 
pass  away.  Paganism  shall  vanish,  and  the  kingdoms  of 
this  world  shall  be  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  his 

Christ. 

In  the  consummation  of  his  plans  the  Scriptures  tell 

us  that  Christ  shall  judge  the  world.     Sublimely  grand 

is  the  prophetic  view  given  by  the  revelator :  "  And   I 

saw  a  great  white  throne  and  Him  that  sat  on  it,  from 


OF  THE  BIBLE.  273 

whose  face  the  earth  and  the  heavens  fled  away,  and 
there  was  found  no  place  for  them.  And  I  saw  the 
dead,  small  and  great,  stand  before  God  ;  and  the  books 
were  opened,  and  another  book  which  is  the  book  of  life : 
and  the  dead  were  judged  out  of  those  things  which 
were  written  in  the  books,  according  to  their  work.  And 
the  sea  gave  up  the  dead  which  were  in  it,  and  death  and 
hell  delivered  up  the  dead  which  were  in  them,  and  they 
were  judged  every  man  according  to  their  work;  and 
death  and  hell  were  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire."  Can  any 
description  be  more  majestically  grand  than  those  of  a 
general  resurrection  and  general  judgment,  to  be  suc- 
ceeded by  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth  "i 

Amid  these  descriptions  of  God's  majesty  and  govern- 
ment we  are  to  remember  that  his  holiness  stands  pre- 
eminent. In  its  aspect,  as  simple  purity  or  freedom  from 
stain,  we  are  commanded  to  seek  for  its  attainment.  The 
precept  is  written,  '*  Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy  ;"  and  in 
the  life  of  Christ  we  have  that  holiness  illustrated  and 
exemplified.  But  holiness  may  be  considered  as  the  sum- 
mation of  all  the  attributes  of  God  in  their  glorious  per- 
fection. In  this  we  cannot  be  like  him  here.  But  we 
shall  approximate  that  likeness,  and  hereafter  shall  see 
him  as  he  is.  A  third  aspect  of  holiness  is  frequently 
presented.  It  is  the  purity  and  goodness  and  benevo- 
lence of  God  made  manifest  in  the  working  out  of  his 
plans,  and  in  the  grand  triumph  of  everlasting  righteous- 
ness. When  we  see  with  Isaiah  the  cherubim  crying, 
*'  Holy,  holy,  holy  Lord  God  of  hosts !"  and  when  with  the 


274  MAJESTY  AND  HOLINESS 

revelator  we  hear  the  response  of  hosts  of  redeemed  join- 
ing in  the  same  glad  song,  we  cannot  suppose  that  they 
refer  simply  to  the  purity  of  God.  That  they  have  known 
before ;  it  is  involved  in  the  very  primary  conceptions 
of  the  character  of  God  :  "  He  is  of  purer  eyes  than  to 
behold  evil."  Nor  can  we  suppose  that  it  was  simply  a 
clearer  view  of  the  Divine  character  in  itself.  But  such 
exclamations  follow  a  revelation  of  God's  great  plans  for 
the  destruction  of  evil  and  the  exaltation  of  righteous- 
ness. As  in  some  great  battle,  when  we  have  seen  scat- 
tered forces  converging  to  one  point ;  when  we  see  the 
skill  of  the  general  displayed  in  massing  at  the  proper 
moment,  and  in  the  proper  place,  just  such  forces  as 
shall  win  the  victory,  we  praise  the  grandeur  of  his  con- 
ceptions and  the  triumphs  of  his  genius;  so  when  God 
arranges  all  agencies  to  discomfit  the  wicked,  to  sanction 
the  right,  to  punish  his  enemies,  and  to  reward  his  fol- 
lowers, and  especially  when  we  behold  those  grand  results 
attained  by  self-sacrifice  on  the  part  of  his  Son  and  by 
the  wonderful  manifestations  of  heavenly  love,  we  are 
prepared  to  join  with  the  unnumbered  hosts  in  saying, 
"  Holy,  holy,  holy  Lord  God  of  Hosts !"  This  holiness  is 
active  as  well  as  passive,  and  Jesus  seems  to  refer  to  it 
when  he  says,  "Be  ye  therefore  perfect,  even  as  your 
Father  in  heaven  is  perfect."  But  that  perfection  of  the 
Father  to  which  he  alludes  was  that  "  he  maketh  his  sun 
to  rise  on  the  evil  and  on  the  good,  and  sendeth  rain  on 
the  just  and  on  the  unjust.  The  duty  enjoined  was  not 
to  love  our  brethren  only,  but  to  love  our  enemies,  and 


OF  THE  BJBLE.  275 

to  pray  for  them  who  persecute  us.  Then  we  become 
the  children  of  God  ;  then  we  share  not  only  passive  holi- 
ness in  freedom  from  sinful  stains,  but  also  active,  God- 
like holiness,  imitating  the  great  Father  in  benevolence 
and  love,  and  the  blessed  Saviour  in  the  sacrifice  of  him- 
self, and  in  -going  about  always  doing  good. 


Date  Due 

4 

p  22  "m 

<^ 

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1    1012  01016  3600 


